Extraordinary circumstances call for extraordinary measures.

Ahead of the New York Knicks’ first NBA Finals series since 1999, the city’s mayor, Zohran Mamdani, has ordered that kids are not subject to their usual bedtimes so they can stay up to watch the basketball.

He signed an executive order on Monday, repealing bedtimes before the series begins at 8:30pm on Wednesday (Thursday morning AEST).

Mamdani said on X: "As Mayor, you're forced to make many difficult decisions. This was not one of them."

17 hours and 42 minutes
The amount of time Italy's Matteo Arnaldi has spent on court through four rounds of the French Open to reach the quarterfinals. It marks the longest run to the last eight at any grand slam since the ATP began recording match times in 1991. Three of Arnaldi’s four matches have lasted more than four hours, capped by a five-hour and 26-minute win over American 19th seed Frances Tiafoe this morning (AEST). His reward is a quarterfinal against fellow Italian Matteo Berrettini.

"I didn't really have an option and wasn't provided an opportunity to say no... I was an intern and was doing what I was told."
An intern at Southampton football club, describing in evidence how he was sent to secretly film rival clubs' training sessions in the scandal English football has dubbed 'Spygate'. The club admitted to spying on three Championship (England's second division) opponents during the 2025-26 season. Southampton were then expelled from the play-off final, handing Middlesbrough their spot in the match against Hull City, who went on to win and be promoted to the Premier League. Written reasons published this week revealed junior staff felt "under extreme pressure" to carry out the spying, fearing for their jobs if they refused.

Over the weekend, the University of Texas women's rowing team won the U.S. collegiate national championship. The eight included two Australians (Imy Grey and Lucy Searle) and completed the two-kilometre course in an unofficial world record of 5:47.706. That’s more than five seconds quicker than the previous best of 5:52.99 set by Romania at the Tokyo Olympics.

🏉 Kieran Foran has signed on as Manly Sea Eagles head coach until the end of 2029. Foran had been serving in the role on an interim basis after the Sea Eagles sacked Anthony Seibold, with the side winless through the opening three rounds of the season. He has since guided Manly to seven wins from nine matches and into the NRL's top six. A club legend, Foran won the 2011 premiership with Manly and played 196 games for the Sea Eagles. Chairman Scott Penn said: "We've been impressed with everything Kieran has done since taking on the interim role and are delighted to appoint him for the next three years. The belief and passion he has instilled in the playing group has more than delivered on our expectations." Fozball is here to stay.

🎾 World number one Aryna Sabalenka has booked her place in the French Open quarterfinals, seeing off four-time major champion Naomi Osaka in straight sets (7-5, 6-3) on Monday night. The win came in the tournament's first women's night session match in three years, a slot organisers have faced criticism for handing almost exclusively to men. A wave of upsets has cleared the draw of every other previous major winner, with defending champion Coco Gauff, four-time Paris champion Iga Świątek, and 2026 Australian Open winner Elena Rybakina all knocked out early, leaving Sabalenka as the sole Grand Slam champion still in contention. She will play 25th seed Diana Schnaider in the quarter-final.

🏉 The Queensland Maroons have been hit with a double setback ahead of State of Origin Game Two on 17 June at the MCG, losing Brisbane Broncos forward Pat Carrigan and centre Gehamat Shibasaki to injury. Carrigan rolled his ankle in the Broncos' weekend defeat to St George Illawarra, and will miss three to four weeks. It halts a streak of 13 consecutive Origin games for the star forward. Shibasaki, named on the bench but unused in Queensland's 22-20 Game One loss to New South Wales, faces five to six weeks on the sidelines with a grade-two MCL injury, ruling him out for the remainder of the series.

🚣 Australian Olympic hero Jess Fox is back on the podium, nine months after surgery to remove a benign kidney tumour. The 31-year-old claimed silver in the women's K1 final at the Canoe Slalom World Cup in Tacen, Slovenia, over the weekend. Fox, a three-time Olympic gold medallist, sat out last year’s World Championships while she recovered, and told the Today show she had once doubted whether she would compete again. Beaten to gold by just 0.13 of a second, she described the comeback as "surreal". The World Cup series now moves on to Germany next week.

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Footy finals, music festivals, interstate weekends – if you're flying anyway, you may as well get rewarded for it. Virgin Australia's Velocity program lets you earn Points and Status Credits on every eligible flight, working towards complimentary upgrades, free flights and Pilot Gold status faster than you'd think.

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St George Illawarra interim coach Dean Young has declared he wants the role permanently, despite the club not yet opening contract talks with him.

Young, who won a premiership with the Dragons as a player in 2010 and went on to represent New South Wales and Australia, stepped into the coaching role in April after the club sacked Shane Flanagan. 

On Sunday, he guided the Dragons to a 30-26 victory over defending premiers Brisbane, ending a 15-game losing streak and securing the club’s first win in 295 days.

When asked on Nine's 100% Footy on Monday night whether he wanted to keep the role permanently, Young declared: "I want the job."

He said players had also begun asking about his future, as the Dragons prepare to welcome a host of new recruits next season, including Scott Drinkwater, Phillip Sami, Keaon Koloamatangi, and Luke Metcalf. 

Young said he already has established relationships with some of the incoming players, having coached Drinkwater at North Queensland and Koloamatangi in the Tonga set-up. 

The Dragons next play Cronulla on Sunday.

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Serena Williams is making a professional tennis comeback after almost four years out of the sport. 

The 44-year-old will play at a tournament in London ahead of Wimbledon in June.

Here’s what to know.

Over a 30 year career, Williams won 23 grand slams and had a long record of returning from setbacks, including knee surgery in 2003, injuries through the mid 2000s and a serious foot injury in 2010. 

While pregnant with her first child, Williams won the 2017 Australian Open, and reached four major finals on her return after giving birth. 

In August 2022, Williams wrote a personal essay for Vogue where she said she was not “retiring” but “evolving” away from the sport. She played her last matches at the 2022 U.S. Open the following month. 

Speculation about a return had been building for months. Back in December, Williams re-entered the sport’s drug testing pool, a required step for any athlete planning to compete again. 

On the day that reports of her re-entry broke, however, Williams posted to X, saying: 

The post did little to downplay speculation, with users commenting “not even for a cute lil bit of doubles?” and “why did you apply to reenter the testing pool?”

Another user commented: “Serena stop playing with me. I’m down the street with my racket get dressed”. 

Williams will make her first appearance at the Queen’s Club tournament after accepting a doubles wildcard for the event. It’s not yet known who her partner will be. 

The Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) announced her return, saying: “Williams is giving tennis one more look at greatness.”

In a post to Instagram, Williams said: “Good news travels fast.”

The Queen’s Club tournament begins next Monday.

A return on grass is expected to fuel speculation about whether she will also enter Wimbledon, which starts on 29 June. 

While Williams has won seven singles titles at the All England Club, WTA said: “The landscape looks very different from the one she left behind in 2022.”

Reporting by Pavitra Ravi.