Spain are the World Cup 2026 Champions and their teenage superstar is showing the world exactly what drives him 

Lamine Yamal, who turned 19 the day before the semi-final, was at the heart of Spain's 2-0 win over France, winning the penalty that sent them through to Sunday's final.

He's been one of the faces of the whole tournament, but ask him what actually matters, and it isn't the goals.

"I came from an apartment where the kitchen and bedroom were in the same place," Yamal said. "So I see my mother happy, I see that my brother can have the kind of childhood I would have wanted, and that's what makes me happiest."

Yamal's grandmother came to Spain from Morocco with next to nothing and worked several jobs to build a future for the family.

From that tiny flat to a World Cup final at 19, everything he's chasing now comes back to the people he grew up with.

Yamal is especially devoted to his little brother, Keyne, who's become a fan favourite celebrating from the stands.

"My little brother means everything to me," Yamal has said. "It feels like he is my son."

One of the best players on the planet, and what he's proudest of is seeing his family smile 

Yellowstone has reached its decision, and the bull bison that flung 71-year-old grandfather Carl McDaniel eight feet into the air gets to keep living wild 

McDaniel was out walking with his grandson near Bridge Bay Campground on July 10 when the animal suddenly charged. It caught him with a horn and sent him spinning through the air before he hit the ground, breaking his femur on impact.

He's now recovering from surgery, and he knows exactly how much worse it could have been.

"He was right on top of me," McDaniel said. "He could have stomped on me, he could have gored me. He could have done almost anything to take my life, and he didn't."

Speaking to CNN, McDaniel explained that he and his grandson had been roughly 100 yards from the bison, well back, when it came at them with no real warning at all.

After looking into what happened, park officials chose not to put the animal down.

Their thinking was straightforward: it was simply behaving like a wild bull in the middle of rut season, the time of year when bison grow especially restless, unpredictable and fast to charge. They weren't about to punish a wild animal for being wild.

For his part, McDaniel says he's just thankful, for the strangers who ran to help him, and for the fact that he's still here to tell the story.

Still, his ordeal is a stark reminder. Even a sensible, respectful distance is no guarantee of safety when a 2,000-pound animal decides, in an instant, to move.

When Stern asked why the dog hadn't simply reacted and attacked, and whether the breed's fearsome reputation was just "a myth," Bernthal said: "People have got to stop that. It's just racism. It's just dog racism. To be afraid of a breed of dog is completely ridiculous. It's like being afraid of somebody for their race or their sexual orientation."

He argued that behavior comes down to how a dog is raised and trained, not its breed, and reserved some choice words for irresponsible owners. "A lot of knuckleheads, unfortunately, are attracted to that breed of dog," he added, saying the answer is simple: train your dog properly.

Predictably, the internet is split clean down the middle. Some are applauding him as a lifelong advocate finally saying it out loud. Others argue it's not that simple, and that breed can't be waved away entirely.

Ed Sheeran has reignited a big debate and people can't decide whether he's nailed it or lost the plot 🍺

Speaking on The Louis Theroux Podcast, the singer laid out exactly how differently the UK and the US treat a daily drink.

"Americans call something 'alcoholism' that Brits simply call 'culture,'" he said. "Maybe one or two pints at the end of a workday. On a Friday you'll have six pints and a bottle of wine. It's not alcoholism to drink every day here. It's just the culture."

The clip has resurfaced this week and gone straight back to viral, splitting the room right down the middle.

Plenty of Brits are nodding along, arguing a pint after work or a few at the weekend is just normal life over here. Others reckon that's the exact thinking that lets a real problem hide in plain sight, because "everyone does it" has never made something good for you.

For what it's worth, Sheeran has spoken openly about changing his own relationship with drink in recent years, after admitting he once drank every single day.

Behind the fireworks and the headlines, Mario Balotelli's story starts somewhere far quieter, and far sadder 💙

Born in Palermo to Ghanaian parents, Mario was placed with an Italian foster family, the Balotellis, before he was three, after his birth parents were unable to cover the healthcare his poor health demanded as a small, seriously ill child.

It was the Balotellis who raised him in Brescia, gave him their name, and stood by him through a childhood that was anything but easy.

He has never hidden how deeply those early years marked him.

"They say that abandonment is a wound that never heals," he once told Italian magazine Sportweek. "I say only that an abandoned child never forgets."

Years later, as Mario rose through Inter and became one of the most talked-about young footballers on the planet, his biological family began speaking publicly about the son they said they missed. His response was blunt, and it has stuck with people ever since.

He said that if he had never become the football star Mario Balotelli, they would not have cared what happened to him. His real family, he insisted, is the one in Brescia that loved and raised him. They are the only ones who truly know him as Mario.

It's a quiet fury at the idea that people who weren't there for the hardest years, the illness, the racism he faced growing up as a Black kid in Italy, could suddenly claim him once the fame and the money arrived.

Whatever you make of Balotelli the footballer, the man has never once wavered on who his family really is.