World
No murder please! Royal Shrovetide is a wild ancient version of soccer still played today
ASHBOURNE, England (AP) — This ancient form of soccer has a rule forbidding players not to murder each other.
Every year, thousands of people descend on a small town in the English countryside to watch a two-day game of mass street football that, to the casual observer, could easily be mistaken for a riot.
This is Royal Shrovetide — a centuries-old ball game played in Ashbourne, Derbyshire, that, frankly, looks nothing like the world’s most popular sport.
Or any other game for that matter.
“It’s like tug of war without the rope,” says Natalie Wakefield, 43, who lives locally and has marshaled the event in the past. “It’s mad in the best possible way.”
Hundreds of players
Played between two teams of hundreds of players, the aim is to “goal” at either end of a three-mile (five-kilometer) sector that could take the match through rivers, hedgerows, high streets and just about anything or anywhere except for churchyards, cemeteries and places of worship.
The ball is thrown into a crowd that moves like a giant herd, as each team tries to carry it toward their desired goal. Rules are limited but “no murder” was an early stipulation for the game that dates back to at least the 1600s.
Good players need to be “hard, aggressive and authoritative,” says Mark Harrison, who “goaled” in 1986 and is one of multiple generations of scorers in his family.
“You can’t practice,” the 62-year-old Harrison adds. He stopped competing seven years ago and now serves up burgers to throngs of spectators from a street food truck.
“You’ve just got to get in there and be rough. I am a rugby player … I’m also an ex-boxer so that helps.”
Royal approval
Harrison had the honor of carrying the then-Prince Charles on his shoulder when in 2003 the now-King of England opened that year’s game.
“He loved it!” Harrison says.
Played over Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday each year, the event is a source of immense pride for the people of Ashbourne in Derbyshire’s Peak District.
Yet, such a unifying tradition is actually based upon splitting the town into two halves between the “Up’ards” and the “Down’ards,” determined by whether players are born on the north or south of the River Henmore.
Don’t park there
On any other days, Ashbourne, around a three-hour drive from London, is quiet and picturesque with a high street lined by antique shops, cafes and pubs. Visitors include hikers, cyclists and campers.
For two days that all changes.
Large timber boardings are nailed up to protect shop fronts. Doorways are barricaded.
“Play Zone” signs are strapped to lampposts, warning motorists not to park there for fear of damage to vehicles, which can be shoved out of the way by the force of the hoards of players trying to move the ball.
In contrast, colorful bunting is strewn high above from building to building and revelers congregate, eating and drinking as if it is a street party. Parents with babies in strollers watch on from a safe distance. School holidays in the area have long since been moved to coincide with the festival.
“There are people who come and they have a drink and they’re just like, ‘This is a bit of a crazy thing and it’s a spectacle, and now I’ve seen it, box ticked off,’” says Wakefield, who also used to report on Royal Shrovetide for the local newspaper. “And there are people who are absolutely enthralled by it all, and they get the beauty and complexity of the game of it and those people follow it year on year.”
Where’s the ball?
Play begins with an opening ceremony in a car park, no less, in the center of town. The national anthem and “Auld Lang Syne” are sung. Competitors are reminded, “You play the game at your own risk.”
A leather ball, the size of a large pumpkin, filled with cork and ornately painted, is thrown into what is called a “hug” of players.
And they’re off.
As a spectator sport, it can be confusing. There can be little to see for long periods during the eight hours of play each day from 2 p.m. local time. Players wear their own clothes — such as random soccer or rugby jerseys — rather than matching uniforms.
On Tuesday, it took more than 45 minutes to move the ball out of the car park.
Onlookers stand on bins, walls and park benches, craning their necks to look down alleyways to try to get a better view.
“Can you see the ball?” someone will ask. The answer is often “No.”
One person thinks it might be in line with a tree over to the right of the car park, but can’t be sure.
Later that day there had been no sight of the ball for almost two hours until rumors started to circulate that the Down’ards scored what turned out to be the only goal over the two days of play for a 1-0 victory.
Deception and cunning
With so many players, the hug can be difficult to maneuver but gathers pace quickly, prompting crowds of spectators who’d previously been trying to get a closer look to suddenly run away from the action.
The ball can be handled and kicked. Play can be frantic, with players racing after a loose ball wherever it may take them, diving into the river and up and out the other side. While strength is needed in the hug, speed is required from runners if the ball breaks free.
Royal Shrovetide, however, can be as much about deception and cunning as speed and strength, it seems.
“There’s a bit of strategy involved in that somebody’s pretending they’ve still got the ball in the middle of the hug,” Wakefield says. “And they’re quietly passing it back out to the edge to get it to a runner who has to sneak away in a kind of, I imagine, very nonchalant manner and then leg it down an alleyway.”
A famous goal in 2019 came as a result of the hug not realizing it didn’t have the ball until it was too late. Hidden by two schoolboys standing meters away, the ball was passed to a player who ran, largely unimpeded, for 1 1/2 miles (2 1/2 kilometers) before scoring.
A ball is goaled when it is hit three times against one of the millstones at either end of the town in Clifton or Sturston.
The beautiful game
Scorers have likened the achievement to winning Olympic gold. They are carried on shoulders, paraded through the town and celebrated like heroes.
“If you can imagine playing for Manchester United in their heyday and they’re at Wembley in a cup final. You score the winner. You’re there,” Harrison says.
Scorers also get to keep the balls, which are repainted and become treasured family possessions.
It is the game, however, that is treasured most of all.
“I just live and breathe it,” says Janet Richardson, 75, from Ashbourne, who has been going to Royal Shrovetide since she was a 1-year-old. “I can’t sleep because I’m excited. It’s so lovely to think that all these people still want to come here and watch this beautiful game that we’ve got in our town.”
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James Robson is at https://twitter.com/jamesalanrobson
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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
World
Stocks fall and oil prices gain after Trump warns the Iran ‘clock is ticking’
HONG KONG (AP) — Asian stocks mostly retreated and oil prices jumped on Monday after U.S. President Donald Trump warned Tehran that the “clock is ticking” as U.S.-Iran negotiations over a permanent end to the war stall.
U.S. futures fell and markets in Japan and South Korea pulled further back from their records. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 fell 1% to 60,815.95, a decline led by technology-related stocks. It reached all-time intraday high levels last week above 63,000.
The yield on the 10-year Japanese government bond surged to as high as 2.8%, its highest level since the late 1990s, part of a shift toward higher yields as the Bank of Japan gradually raises interest rates and higher energy costs raise expectations of rising inflation. That’s up from around 2.55% just one week ago.
Seoul’s Kospi climbed 0.3% to 7,516.04 after trading lower earlier in the day. It crossed the 8,000 mark for the first time on Friday, supported by buying of technology shares driven by the boom in artificial intelligence, but later declined partly on profit-taking by investors.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 1.4% to 25,596.68. The Shanghai Composite index edged 0.1% lower to 4,131.53, after China reported weaker-than-expected retail data for April.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 declined 1.5% to 8,505.30.
Taiwan’s Taiex dropped 0.7%, while India’s Sensex fell 0.1%.
Oil prices rose after Trump warned Iran in a social media post that “the Clock is Ticking, and they better get moving, FAST, or there won’t be anything left of them” following a call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Trump has set deadlines for Iran and then backed off, so investors have remained cautious about the situation in the Strait of Hormuz and how it is impacting global energy flows, including oil and gas. The strait is still mostly closed, and the U.S. has also imposed its own sea blockade on Iranian ports since last month.
A drone strike over the weekend on a United Arab Emirates’ nuclear power plant added to worries over a potential escalation in the conflict.
Brent crude, the international standard, gained 0.7% to $110.02 per barrel. It was trading at roughly $70 a barrel in late February before the start of the Iran war. Benchmark U.S. crude was trading 0.8% higher to $106.31 per barrel.
“Re-escalation risks are increasing,” ING commodities strategists Warren Patterson and Ewa Manthey wrote in a research note. While there has also been a pick up on shipping activities over the past week around the strait, they said, “this can change quickly.”
The pair also noted that the oil market was reacting to the lack of tangible results on the Iran war after last week’s widely-watched summit between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing, even as the White House said both the U.S. and China had agreed that the Strait of Hormuz must remain open.
U.S. officials had hoped that Beijing could use its influence, given its economic ties with Iran, to help broker a peace agreement and reopen the strait. Trump said last week in an interview that Xi told him China “would like to be of help” in negotiating an end to the war. So far it’s been unclear how Beijing might do that.
The yield on the U.S. 10-year Treasury was at around 4.60%, up from 4.47% last Thursday and sharply higher than the nearly 4% level it was holding at before the Iran war.
On Friday, the benchmark S&P 500 dropped 1.2% from the record it set the day before. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.1% and the technology-heavy Nasdaq composite lost 1.5%.
In other dealings early Monday, the U.S. dollar rose to 158.86 Japanese yen from 158.62 yen. The euro was trading at $1.1635, up from $1.1622.
World
Canada confirms hantavirus case linked to cruise ship outbreak that has killed three passengers
Hantavirus outbreak on cruise ship sparks concern as passengers return to US
Fox News senior medical analyst Dr. Marc Siegel discusses the Hantavirus outbreak aboard the MV Hondius cruise ship, where three deaths occurred. Siegel explains that while human-to-human spread is rare, it’s not impossible. The segment highlights the return of passengers to the U.S. from locations like Tenerife and Praia, raising new public health concerns and emphasizing the need for containment.
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Canadian health officials on Sunday confirmed that one of four Canadians who returned from the MV Hondius cruise ship, the subject of an international Andes hantavirus outbreak, tested positive for hantavirus. Three people connected to the outbreak have died.
The Public Health Agency of Canada confirmed the positive test after British Columbia’s top public health officer previously described the case as a “presumptive positive.”
“One individual’s sample was confirmed positive for hantavirus,” the agency said in a statement.
Officials said additional testing will be conducted at a national laboratory. It was not immediately clear whether that testing was for confirmation, strain characterization or another purpose.
CRUISE SHIP PASSENGER DESCRIBES UNCERTAINTY AFTER 3 DEATHS AMID HANTAVIRUS PROBE
Experts say cruise outbreaks get more attention due to public reporting rules, but many travelers still plan to sail as booked. (Myloupe/Universal Images Group)
The development comes as global health officials continue monitoring the rare hantavirus outbreak tied to the MV Hondius, which has sickened multiple passengers.
As of May 13, the World Health Organization said 11 cases had been identified in connection with the cruise outbreak, including eight confirmed cases, two probable cases and one inconclusive case. Those figures included three deaths. The Associated Press later reported that the Canadian confirmation brought the number of people from the ship who had tested positive to 10.
Canadian health officials said four Canadians returned home from the MV Hondius, though only one has tested positive for the virus.
RARE HANTAVIRUS HUMAN-TO-HUMAN TRANSMISSION SUSPECTED ON LUXURY CRUISE SHIP WHERE 3 HAVE DIED
The rare Andes virus, which was linked to the MV Hondius cruise ship outbreak, is the only known hantavirus strain that has the capability to spread from person to person, usually through prolonged close contact. (Andres Gutierrez/Anadolu)
The confirmed patient and a traveling companion — identified as a Yukon couple in their 70s — returned from the cruise together. The companion later tested negative, officials said.
A third person in their 70s from Vancouver Island remains in isolation, along with a British Columbia resident in their 50s.
So far, no confirmed U.S. cases tied to the cruise ship have been reported, though WHO said as of May 13 that one U.S.-repatriated passenger had inconclusive laboratory results and was undergoing retesting.
HANTAVIRUS DEATHS ON CRUISE SHIP HIGHLIGHT DANGERS OF RODENT-BORNE DISEASE
Pictured is the MV Hondius, the cruise ship tied to a hantavirus outbreak after a stop in Argentina that left three passengers dead. (Europa Press Canarias via Getty Images)
Last week, however, health officials in Ontario County, New York, announced they were investigating a suspected locally acquired hantavirus case unrelated to the cruise ship.
The Ontario County Public Health Department said there was no risk to the general public. Officials also said the strain typically seen in the United States is not known to spread from person to person.
The outbreak linked to the MV Hondius began after the Dutch cruise ship, carrying 147 passengers and crew members, departed Argentina on April 1 for a South Atlantic voyage.
TRAPPED CRUISE SHIP PASSENGER SHARES UPDATE ON CLEANLINESS OF SHIP AMID DEADLY HANTAVIRUS OUTBREAK
The outbreak has prompted heightened precautions internationally, including in the Netherlands, where Radboud University Medical Center quarantined 12 staff members after officials said a hantavirus patient’s blood and urine were not handled under the strictest protocols recommended for the virus strain.
The outbreak has also sparked comparisons to the coronavirus pandemic. However, Fox News senior medical analyst Dr. Marc Siegel previously told Fox News Digital there is “no comparison.”
He noted hantavirus is difficult to spread.
Passengers evacuated from the hantavirus-stricken Hondius cruise ship walk with their belongings after disembarking at Eindhoven Air Base, Netherlands, on May 12. (Piroschka van de Wouw)
“It’s not airborne … in terms of respiratory droplets hanging in the air,” he said. “It’s very difficult to transmit.”
While coronavirus “moved in the direction of humans in a significant way,” hantavirus has not, except for “very rare” cases of human-to-human transmission, he added.
The World Health Organization has assessed the risk to the global population as low, while noting that current evidence suggests subsequent human-to-human transmission may have occurred on board. Andes virus is the only hantavirus known to have documented person-to-person transmission, though such spread is considered rare.
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Siegel also noted hantavirus cases have been reported in the United States for decades, though they remain “very rare.”
Fox News Digital’s Brittany Miller and Angelica Stabile, along with The Associated Press, contributed to this report.
World
Moment of collision between two Navy jets at Idaho air show
Two US Navy jets collided during an air show at Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho, sending both aircraft crashing to the ground in front of spectators. All four crew members ejected safely before impact.
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