We are now under a month away from the 2025 NFL Draft, and things are starting to heat up. Teams have finished the bulk of their free agency signings, which means that teams’ needs and draft boards are solidifying, too. And, with the Miami Hurricanes Pro Day now in the rearview mirror (with a large […]
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The Vancouver Canucks absolutely needed a win on the road against the New Jersey Devils on Monday night — and Thatcher Demko was one of the key reasons why they were able to come away with the two points. After missing 15 games with a lower-body injury, Demko returned to the lineup and made 22 […]
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The Orlando Magic earned their second straight victory on Monday night, defeating the Los Angeles Lakers 118-106 behind standout performances from Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner. The duo combined for 62 points and led a dominant third quarter that propelled the Magic past a Lakers team featuring newly acquired guard Luka Doncic. Doncic, who nearly […]
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Arkansas men’s basketball enters its Sweet 16 game in the 2025 NCAA Tournament against Texas Tech as 5.5-point underdogs, but the Razorbacks got some good news on Tuesday. Leading scorer Adou Thiero will be available Thursday night when Arkansas faces the Red Raiders, head coach John Calipari has revealed. “Adou Theiro is available. He is […]
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WHEN it comes to pirate gaming adventures it’s hard to look beyond the behemoth that is Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag (with respectful nods to Monkey Island and Sea of Thieves too).
But that’s not to say little swashbuckling gems don’t exist.
And like One-Eyed Willy’s secret stash – Rogue Waters glimmers in the darkness as a hidden treasure to tempt you.
And now this jolly roger romp is out on Nintendo Switch.
It’s a thoroughly tantalising turn-based tactical number which leaves you as happy and excited as Sloth zipping down the Inferno sails with Chunk clinging to his back.
It’s great value too, you get a fantastic bang for your buccaneer.
Rogue Waters sees you set sail as Captain Cutter who is out for a bit of revenge after being left without an eye as he is betrayed by the dastardly Captain Blackbone.
After a couple of tutorials, you’re straight into the action.
The game consists of you recruiting a crew of pirates, building a bigger and deadlier ship and setting sail across dangerous waters as you look to plunder treasures.
You must carefully select your crew as you go. There are six unique classes to choose from, from Rogues to Swashbucklers.
And each offers a variety of different abilities – Gunners deliver damage from distance while Rogues focus more on flanking the enemy.
Before setting sail, you select your crew and improve your ship at the Pirate Cave – any treasures picked up on the way can be found in your inventory and easily added to your arsenal.
You then set off on your run which will involve taking on different ships and different enemies on land.
The gameplay itself is quick and fun. Choosing the right crew for boarding an enemy vessel is vital – too many pawns and you’ll be overrun, too many Gunners and you’ll risk losing your A-team on the frontline.
Each character can be moved a certain distance highlighted by white squares and this can be extended further by positioning them near a swing rope.
Your pirate can then be ordered to attack the bad guy or use the turn to armour up.
The enemies can be brutal and tricky to defeat. The game is brilliant in forcing you to think strategically before attacking.
And you can’t just go all-out offensive mode, each run demands a different strategy.
The levels are cleverly designed and offer up rocks and walls which encourages you to use the surroundings wisely in positioning the crew.
The hand-to-hand combat cutscenes are short and sweet while the summoning of sea creatures is the icing on the cake.
You can order up a kraken, mermaid or giant snail during one of your turns to rain down death and destruction on the enemy when your back is against the wall.
The game becomes incredibly addictive as you move to upgrade your crew’s skills.
After each run you need to swap out some on your team who took a hiding in the battle before and need time to repair and heal.
Even if you get a pummeling, each run resets your equipment and items so you’re not hindered on the next run. Plus any upgrades gained in the previous run are unlocked permanently.
Back in the cave you can then check out your loot and repair your ship, not to mention add bigger and better cannons.
The skills tree is plentiful and the unlockables help build an unstoppable crew of cutthroat buccaneers.
Before boarding a ship, you can cause damage by using those cannons. These turn-based attacks see you get a few shots off to either disable the enemy’s arsenal or target its crew members.
Rogue Waters is a fun, versatile game from Ice Code Games which offers a challenging quest.
There are three acts, which just about quenches your thirst for pirate pummelling action but it felt like there could have been a lot more.
That being said, it’s hard to fault Rogue Waters. It’s a brilliant game where you must turn the tide as a cutthroat chessmaster.
I recommend it with all me hearty.
RONALDO has a vintage reason for remembering a shocking incident with a team-mate.
The former Barcelona and Real Madrid striker played alongside Vampeta for both Brazil and Inter Milan.
And even though the midfielder played only eight games for the Italians, he still made a special mark on Ronaldo – or at least his wine collection.
The 98-cap legend had spent 10,000 euros – about £8,000 – on a bottle of Petrus wine.
Arguably the most famous ‘plonk’ in the world, the brand from Bordeaux originated in the 18th century.
It takes three or four decades to reach its best – but Vampeta took just a few seconds to do his worst!
Ronaldo, 51, told Brazilian podcast “Charla” what unfolded when the 48-year old saw the bottle.
He said: “I bought a bottle of Petrus wine, I brought it home more for its symbolic value, being the most famous wine in the world.
“I had no intention of opening it because the bottle dated back to the year of his birth: 1500.
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“They had told me it hadn’t even been a good year!
“Well, Vampeta opened it, took some plastic glasses, poured it, drank it and made a disgusted face saying: ‘It’s damn hot, is there ice in it?'”
If that was enough for poor Ronaldo, he explained that Vampeta wasn’t finished yet.
The ex-PSV Eindhoven hero added: “Then he started putting an ice cube in each glass.
“And I couldn’t believe it because, as I said, it was just a wine for display.”
There was no suggestion Vampeta was aware of the wine being so special.
And it’s also unclear what he meant by the date “1500”.
That’s because the earliest trace of the Petrus vineyards in Pomerol, Bordeaux, appears to be the 1750s.
Interestingly, however, the 19 years of especially fine vintages for the elite brand include 2000 – just the time when Vampeta was making his own unique contribution to its history!
JESSE LINGARD ate a live octopus while filming his latest YouTube video.
The former Manchester United star has embraced life in South Korea since signing for FC Seoul last year.
Lingard recently headed to Gwangjang Market with pals to try Korean street food, sharing the results on his YouTube channel.
During the tasting, the midfielder gasped as he saw that the octopus on his plate was still moving.
The ex-England ace visibly squirmed as he contemplated eating the meal.
Lingard said: “Why are you moving? I can’t eat because I’m scared.”
The Mancunian kept repeating that he was “scared”, before adding: “I can’t do it.”
After eventually eating the octopus, Lingard began to calm down.
He then grinned as he said: “It’s easy. I was just playing around.”
Lingard even claimed that the food was “not bad”.
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While Lingard struggled with the octopus, he enjoyed much of the other food, which included sweet and sour chicken.
He said: “I love Korean street food. It’s 10 out of 10.”
Having quit English football last year, Lingard has enjoyed his time in Asia.
He swiftly earned the captain’s armband at FC Seoul, becoming a fans’ favourite.
After losing against Jeju United on the opening day, Lingard’s side have since put together a run of four matches undefeated.
Lingard scored his first goal of the season against Anyang, reeling off five celebrations in one.
A MOTHER has revealed that she got pregnant with her first child at the age of 18.
Kai Slobert and her now wife, Dee, who met in high school, were both homeless and living in shelters at the time when they decided to have a child and conceive via a free sperm donor.
Revealing all to Truly on an episode of My Extraordinary Family, the couple opened up on having a child while they were still teenagers.
Kai said: “I was homeless and I chose to have a baby.
“I would never promote it. It was just my situation at the time and I was young.
“I love kids, and I just decided to have kids on my own. Everybody’s circumstances are different, but the choice is yours, it’s your life.”
When asked how they conceived, Kai reflected: “We decided to conceive by finding a donor that was free.
“We ended up finding him through Google search – I just put ‘free sperm donor’.”
The couple have been married for five years and their daughter, Kaidee, is now five years old.
They also have a second daughter, Faith, who is three.
Mum-of-two Kai opened up on how her parents reacted when they first discovered she was pregnant.
She shared: “They weren’t very pleased when they found out I was pregnant at a young age.
“They wished I waited a little longer before trying considering the situation I was in.
“It was hard because me and her were separated at first, so it was just me in the pregnancy shelter.
“It was my first experience being pregnant and I was alone.
Teen pregnancies in the UK have been decreasing considerably since 2007...
The under-18 conception rate has decreased considerably since 2007, reports Nuffield Trust.
Between 2007 and 2021, the under-18 conception rate in England and Wales decreased by 68%, from 42 per 1,000 women to 13 per 1,000 women.
This resulted in 13,131 under-18 conceptions in England and Wales in 2021.
“When Kaidee was born, I was still homeless, I was in the shelter, by myself.
“Then a few months later, my wife came along with me and we stayed there for a few months until we got our apartment.
“Our circumstances have changed drastically since then, of course we’re not homeless any more.”
Both of Kai and Dee’s children are aware of how they were conceived and refer to their donor siblings as ‘diblings’.
I was homeless and I chose to have a baby. I would never promote it. It was just my situation at the time and I was young
Kai Slobert
Now, the family share their life on social media, but while they have been met with a lot of positivity, they have also found themselves at the heart of harsh judgement.
As well as comments about being homeless when they had Kaidee, they have received negativity about being a two mum family.
They have even been told ‘18-year-old homeless couples shouldn’t be having kids’ and ‘this should be illegal’, by cruel haters.
Tracy Kiss, who fell pregnant at 19, has revealed what she believes are the pros of being a young mother.
The personal trainer and blogger, from Buckinghamshire, believes women who give birth in their teens make BETTER mothers than those in their 30s.
She claims young mums snap back into shape quicker, have more energy and relate more easily to their children, meaning they’re better behaved and happier.
Tracy told Fabulous: “Women who become first-time mums in their teens make better parents than those in their 30s or 40s.
“I believe if I’d been 10 or so years older before becoming a mother then I wouldn’t have the relationship I have with my children now.
“For a start, being older I would have had less energy and therefore less patience.
“I wouldn’t be as enthusiastic to speak to people after months of sleepless nights as I was in my teens.
“My body snapped back to its pre-pregnancy size through fitness post-birth, which in turn gave me the confidence to date and find love again. I’ve never been happier than I am now at the age of 30 with two children.
“If I’d have been alone at 40 with a newborn baby I’d be more tired, less happy with my body, less energetic and far more stressed from the shock of living my life for myself instead of putting others first. Sometimes age and the innocence of ignorance is a good thing.
“As a teen mum I just got on with it, found my feet and became responsible and capable because at the time I didn’t know any different.”
Despite this, Kai and Dee hope the future holds a lot of success and happiness as well as more children, as Kai said: “We are in the process of trying to conceive for not one, but two more and hopefully conceive at the same time and be pregnant together.”
The couple hope sharing their story clarifies and corrects some misconceptions, as Kai recognised: “We hope that people learn that, for one, we are not an 18-year-old homeless couple.
“We are now adults that have lived and learned.”
The YouTube clip, which was posted just one day ago, has clearly left many open-mouthed, as it has quickly amassed almost 10,000 views.
But viewers were left totally divided – whilst many were complimentary, not everyone was as kind.
You shouldn’t put your selfish desires over your child’s quality of life
YouTube user
One user wrote: “They’re doing a good job with the girls.”
Whilst a second penned: “Very sweet couple.”
However, at the same time, another person said: “You shouldn’t put your selfish desires over your child’s quality of life.”
Meanwhile, another added: “How selfish. They are not financially secure, but they want to add more kids. This is so sad.”
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WATCHING her son doubled over in agony on the hospital bed, Hannah Amer begged doctors to act quickly to remove the metal balls that were burning through his bowel.
And the 12-year-old, from Hertfordshire, was just two hours from death when he went under the knife, as surgeons battled to save his digestive system.
Bobby’s ordeal was down to a simple kids’ toy – known as “fidget toys” – which have left numerous kids fighting for their lives and one eight-year-old dead.
The seemingly harmless magnetic balls have become part of a terrifying TikTok “piercing trend” where people use the magnets to replicate facial jewellery.
However, the trend can have extremely serious consequences, with hundreds of kids rushing to emergency care accidentally ingesting them.
Once swallowed, the tiny magnetic balls, usually 3mm in size, can join together and cause significant internal damage to organs within hours.
On Monday, a one-year-old baby girl swallowed six tiny magnetic balls and almost died. Her lifesaving surgery has now left her with a stoma bag and a feeding tube.
In 2021, the NHS called for a ban on the magnets after at least 65 children were admitted to hospital for urgent surgery.
Now Hannah, and many parents like her, are backing the call as cases continue to rise, with over 400 parents taking to Facebook in the last 24 hours to debate why their children are still at such a risk.
The Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) issued a safety alert regarding the magnets but there isn’t a complete ban and children can still purchase them online.
The tiny magnets are often ball or disc shaped and they can join together and cause bowel perforation and obstruction if swallowed.
Hannah, 38, spent five days in the hospital with Bobby, after he ingested two tiny magnets.
Hannah said: “All these kids were playing with the magnetic balls, and Bobby sort of flicked it up in the air, you know, like a Malteser, and caught it in his mouth.
“But because they’re so small, it just went straight down his throat.
“We went to A&E and the X-ray showed that he had one magnetic ball stuck in his chest and one in his bowel.
“The doctor said as long as one comes out first he will be fine, but he was doubled over with extreme stomach pain.
“We were there for five days and they wouldn’t let my son have any food.
“They were giving him really strong laxatives hoping the magnets would come out, but everyday they didn’t.
“In the end, I demanded a CT scan, and within hours they were rushing him into surgery, because they could see the balls had clamped together in his bowel.”
The mum-of-three was terrified after her son went in for a three-hour surgery where they pulled his bowels out and removed the magnets.
She claimed the doctor told her that if they had waited much longer to operate her son’s bowels would have perforated.
Hannah said: “The doctor came out and said the magnets were pulling all the way through the lining of the bowel.
He could have ended up with a stoma bag if his bowel perforated, so thank God I kicked up a fuss.
Hannah Amer
“Thank God I kicked off. For one, he might not have made it if it had been a couple more hours. But for two, he could have ended up with a stoma bag.”
After the life-changing incident Bobby’s school banned the small magnets and held an assembly to help raise awareness of how dangerous they can be.
Hannah added: “It is still happening though and it is crazy. Parents come to me all the time and say ‘Oh my God, a similar thing to happen to us.’
“Another mum’s daughter swallowed them, even some people’s pets have swallowed them.
“My son said his friends stuck them to the top and bottom of their eyebrows, put them on their tongue and one up their nose as well. It is just so dangerous.”
Hannah’s son was off school for two weeks after his surgery and she explained how shocking it felt to see and hear about older children swallowing the toys.
She said: “The hospital staff asked me if he was trying to harm himself and I said he was just messing around but the balls are insanely dangerous.”
While Bobby’s life-threatening surgery was horrific, Hannah counts herself as one of the lucky ones as the consequences could have been a lot worse.
In 2022, eight-year-old Rhys Millum from Harrogate died after ingesting ten toy magnetic balls. His mother said she hopes the tragedy still raises awareness for how dangerous the tiny objects are.
According to the BBC, the young boy was “doubled over and screaming” and “couldn’t see” before being admitted to hospital.
The police investigated the possibility the young boy could have been participating in a “TikTok piercing challenge”.
Professor Simon Kenny, paediatric surgeon and national clinical director for children and young people at NHS England, said: “I would urge parents to be aware of the dangers associated with magnetic toys but ultimately, the only way we can prevent future incidents is to stop these items being sold altogether.”
Earlier this month, two-year-old Rheon Flower’s mum, Cassie, spoke to The Sun from her son’s hospital bedside.
Cassie explained her son is lucky to be alive after swallowing 19 magnetic metal beads and undergoing a seven-hour emergency surgery.
Rheon had part of his bowel removed and now has a stoma bag after the magnetic balls joined together in a ring in his small intestine.
Katrina Phillips, chief executive of the Child Accident Prevention Trust (CAPT), told the NHS: “These small magnets look so innocuous, but if a child swallows them, the magnets stick together and cut off blood supply, causing tissue to die.
Mums now fear not enough is being done and feel the crippling number of children needing stoma bags and emergency care is on the rise.
A petition has been launched with nearly 300 parents taking matters into their own hands.
The health risks associated with the tiny objects include:
Signs your child may have swallowed a magnet:
The campaign mentions a study in the Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology & Nutrition which called the ingestion of the magnets a public health emergency in the United States.
According to The Washington Post there were 2400 hospital admissions due to the magnets in America in 2023 alone.
If swallowed, they could cause irreversible damage to a child’s throat and stomach in a matter of minutes and mean a lifetime of operations and procedures.
Paolo De Coppi
Hannah explained that when her 12-year-old son accidentally swallowed the tiny balls, they were silver but once removed they were green, potentially nearly poisoning his blood.
Another parent shared on Facebook that the magnets clipped to either side of her daughter’s stomach lining and she unable to eat for weeks.
Paolo De Coppi, Consultant Paediatric Surgeon at Great Ormond Street Hospital said: “The danger of tiny button batteries and magnets is huge – they really can cause horror injuries.
It is illegal to sell these magnets to children who are under the age of 14, but online market places and similar-style toys are slipping under the radar.
The magnetic balls are gaining recent popularity due to a TikTok “piercing trend” where children video themselves and pretend to have facial piercings.
The trend is fuelling the number of older children who are being admitted to hospitals after ingesting the magnets, according to the NHS.
After major scares in 2021 and 2022, mums are again asking why the balls are still circulating online, with new “fidget toys” becoming the latest way the balls are gaining traction with older children.
Consumer champion, Which? found more than 90 per cent of the toys bought through online marketplaces can’t be legally sold in the UK, with over half posing a danger to any child playing with them.
This included small magnetic balls from TikTok Shop in a fishing set.
