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Yahoo
7 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Will Florida's Space Coast surpass 100 annual rocket launches for 1st time this year?
Will the annual number of orbital rockets launched from Florida's Space Coast reach triple digits for the first time by year's end? Stay tuned. During 2024, a record-shattering 93 launches took flight from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and NASA's neighboring Kennedy Space Center, easily zooming past the previous record of 72 launches in 2023. But in an unprecedented cadence, 61 launches have already racked up thus far during 2025. That's a full month and a half — or 47 days — ahead of last year's record pace. "The increase that you're seeing, especially in our eastern and western ranges, reflects the deployment of these mega-constellations for broadband, direct-to-device and other things," said Karen Jones, a space economist and technology strategist with the Center for Space Policy and Strategy at The Aerospace Corp. "It's healthy. It's showing that market's growing," Jones said. Cape Canaveral: Is there a launch today? Upcoming SpaceX, NASA, ULA rocket launch schedule at Cape Canaveral SpaceX Starlink high-speed-internet missions continue to dominate the Space Coast's launch schedule. As of Wednesday, July 16, Starlink boasted more than six million customers and 7,945 functioning satellites in low-Earth orbit, according to Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. That sum does not include the latest batch of 26 Starlink satellites launched Wednesday night from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. In the Cape's 61st liftoff of the year thus far, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched 24 Amazon Project Kuiper internet-beaming satellites into low-Earth orbit on the KF-01 mission Wednesday from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Project Kuiper is Amazon founder Jeff Bezos' competitor to Elon Musk's Starlink. By comparison, Florida's 61st launch of 2024 did not occur until Labor Day weekend, on Aug. 28. That's when SpaceX's Starlink 8-10 mission lifted off from the Space Force installation, deploying 21 Starlink satellites. The rise of orbiting mega-constellations Worldwide, nearly 11,900 operational satellites were orbiting Earth by the end of 2024 — a sum that skyrocketed 454% since 2018. The global annual launch rate increased by 129% during that same span, The Aerospace Corp. reported in a paper co-authored by Jones that was published two weeks ago. Aside from Starlink, count Amazon's Project Kuiper and AST SpaceMobile among the commercial companies also vying to ramp up future communications-satellite launches from Florida. Also following suit: China. "Not surprisingly, the world's second-largest economy is not remaining earthbound. While China has one commercial spaceport, the country plans to launch more than 36,000 satellites in the near future," The Aerospace Corp. paper said. "The constellation GuoWang ('SatNet') is expected to have about 13,000 satellites and compete with Starlink services. Another project to rival Starlink is Qianfan ('Thousand Sails')," the paper said. Though demand for individual launches continues to surge, Jones said this trend may back off in coming years as companies consolidate and far-larger rockets boasting jumbo-sized fairings like SpaceX's Starship and Blue Origin's New Glenn let companies "maximize their productivity and minimize resource consumption." What's more, Jones' paper noted the commercialization of low-Earth orbit is showing signs of maturity "as early entrants capture market share and later entrants strive to differentiate themselves." BryceTech, an Alexandria, Virginia, analytics firm, forecasts that an average of 3,100 spacecraft per year will be deployed through 2028, decreasing to 2,500 spacecraft from 2029 to 2033. Meanwhile, SpaceX seeks environmental approvals to start launching Starship-Super Heavy rocket systems from KSC and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Blue Origin is expected to launch its second powerhouse New Glenn rocket as early as mid-August from the Space Force installation. NASA's SpaceX Crew-11 highlights launch schedule Looking ahead on the Eastern Range calendar, two missions are coming up from Cape Canaveral. Note that SpaceX is likely to launch more Starlink missions during this timeframe: A Falcon 9 should deploy the Boeing-built ninth and 10th O3B mPOWER satellites into medium-Earth orbit Monday, July 21, owner/operator SES reported. The launch window extends from 5 p.m. to 8:13 p.m. NASA's SpaceX Crew-11 is scheduled for launch at 12:09 p.m. July 31, sending NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Kimiya Yui, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov up for a long-duration stay aboard the International Space Station. For at least the second straight year, high-profile officials kicked off January with public launch-total predictions that proved far too optimistic. The Space Force initially projected up to 156 launches would take flight this year from Florida's Space Coast. For the latest news from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and NASA's Kennedy Space Center, visit Another easy way: Click here to sign up for our weekly Space newsletter. Rick Neale is a Space Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Neale at Rneale@ Twitter/X: @RickNeale1 Space is important to us and that's why we're working to bring you top coverage of the industry and Florida launches. Journalism like this takes time and resources. Please support it with a subscription here. This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Will Cape Canaveral see unprecedented 100 rocket launches during 2025? Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
09-07-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Wales Euro 2025: The search for a letter that led to the creation of a national team
More than 30 years have been and gone. No one has seen the letter. But those in Wales know of its legend. In 1992, three women — Laura McAllister, Michele Adams and Karen Jones — penned a missive to Alun Evans, the Football Association of Wales (FAW) general secretary, requesting an audience. He duly accepted. Advertisement The footballers walked into Evans' plush Cardiff office in the centre of the Welsh capital with anger. They walked out with a formally recognised Wales women's national team. Thirty-two years later, Wales are competing at Euro 2025, their first major tournament. It would not have happened without 'The Letter'. Lore such as this is ever-changing. In the case of women's football, where archives have been reliant on oral history due to a lack of resources, fact-checking is a matter of democracy. Neither McAllister, Adams, nor Jones can remember how they were summoned to Evans' office, when that took place, the exact date the letter was written and, sometimes, who actually wrote it. Adams and Jones maintain with unerring conviction that it was McAllister, their former Cardiff City team-mate. Advertisement 'It'd be amazing if you could find it,' McAllister, once the national team captain and now a vice president of UEFA's executive committee, tells at full time of Wales' 2-1 defeat against Denmark in the Nations League at Cardiff City Stadium in April. 'Alun kept almost everything.' On a June afternoon, the smell of cramped humanity during a stunning four-hour journey wafts through a late train to Aberystwyth, a small coastal town on Wales' western flank that will soon be home for the next 72 hours as goes letter hunting. Evans, who died in 2011 aged 69, allegedly kept (nearly) every piece of correspondence from his time as general secretary between 1982 and 1995, along with much that bookended him. The boxes carrying that paperwork are known colloquially as the 'Alun Evans Papers'. They're housed in the National Library of Wales, a hulking grey monolith that hovers upon a hilltop overlooking the town, Mount Olympus-style. Advertisement No one has sifted through the boxes. No one knows what lies inside but, apparently, there's a letter. Before my visit, a library spirit guide named Martin explains the decorum: Present two forms of identification and printed permission from the three women to search for (and if found, photograph) the letter. No food, drink, bags or jackets permitted inside the library's reading rooms. Absolutely nothing not already in the public domain (ie, anything beyond FAW committee minutes) can be photographed or written about from Evans' boxes. 'I certainly hope,' Martin wrote in an email 24 hours before my trip, 'after all of this, and your travelling, all to trawl through the boxes of the Alun Evans Papers, that you do indeed manage to trace the letter in question. I accordingly wish you every success in this endeavour.' Advertisement In 1972, Adams graced the back pages of the South Wales Echo newspaper for the second time. The first, three years earlier, had been a matter of innocent corruption: an 11-year-old girl unaware she was violating the 1922 law barring her from playing football in Wales. The second, however, was an indictment. In a back-page triptych featuring a female long-distance lorry driver and a female shop owner, Adams' face stared back as the third avatar: 14 years old, her hair tucked conspiringly in the upturned collar of her shirt amid a plague of boys playing football. 'The headline was something like 'The Modern Woman',' recalls Adams. 'And there was this dirty photo of me in the Barry Boys' League. I was banned.' A month later, an Irishman named John J Rooney stood on her family's stoop with a lifeline. Two years earlier, the FAW, the country's governing body, had lifted its ban on women's football (but enacted a ban on girls playing with boys). Rooney had a women's team. He was putting together a league and, eventually, a Wales national team. He wanted Adams. Advertisement The North Reading Room is library perfection. White ceilings high and arching. Wood desks adorned with small gold lamps with emerald tops. Everything is whispered. Including this: 'There are 37 boxes.' In the librarian's shaking arms, a charcoal box big enough for a two-tiered wedding cake. Adams remembers the rain: biblical, a baptism in the most literal sense. Three years after Rooney's first visit to her family home, she stood on a pitch-turned-bog in Llanelli, Wales, losing 3-2 against the Republic of Ireland in the national team's first match, in front of a crowd of 3,500. Her soggy kit clung beyond her knees, borrowed from Swansea City's academy. The FAW refused to supply the women with kits bearing the FAW crest, setting into motion the team's two-decade battle for recognition. Advertisement 'I wouldn't call it a battle,' laughs Jones. 'Is it a battle when they don't even look at you sideways?' A word Adams and Jones prefer to use is 'deaths', or the manifold times the national team and domestic clubs folded between 1973 and 1992 due to lack of funds, resources, willpower from volunteers or a semblance of infrastructure for the domestic game. By 1992, the women's national team had all but evaporated. A resurrection looked impossible. The Alun Evans Papers vacillate between a harmonised treasure trove and a coffee-stained bottomless pit of various committee minutes as far back as 1886. Advertisement I'm not technically allowed to say any more. But box No 8 houses a binder dedicated to the Welsh ancestry of nine-cap Wales international and Hollywood hardman Vinnie Jones. In 1992, Adams was Cardiff City Ladies' tigerish midfielder. The then-33-year-old was also the team's minibus driver. Such was the life of Welsh women's teams in 1991: schlepping to English leagues across the border on the weekend (in Cardiff City Ladies' case, Division 1 of the South West Women's league), enduring six-hour round trips for organised competition. Beside Adams at the front of the bus was Jones, the club's veteran goalkeeper, map reader and the one running the women's team with Adams. Between them was McAllister, a 27-year-old midfielder pursuing a doctorate in political science at Cardiff University. Advertisement The rest of the team rode in the back. 'One night we're driving home after a match,' says Adams. 'Laura slams her textbook shut, starts asking about the FAW.' The outburst inspired motherly glances from Adams and Jones, who regaled McAllister before with sorry tales of the past two decades. But McAllister's ire was rekindled in 1991, when the summer's European Championship was officially recognised by UEFA, European football's governing body, before the first Women's World Cup was held in China in November. 'And Laura is Laura,' Adams says. 'She doesn't drop things.' 'I just couldn't believe how much Karen and Michele put into establishing the club's infrastructure all by themselves,' says McAllister, comparing their efforts to those of London clubs she came to know while playing for Millwall Lionesses during her undergraduate studies at the London School of Economics two years earlier. Advertisement 'I remember thinking, 'Why don't we go back to the FAW and show them how professional this is? The worst they can do is continue to not support us'.' By the time the minibus reached Wales' border, a letter was written. 'I believe it has a Cardiff City Ladies letterhead, if that helps.' McAllister's voice note plays in my ears as I haul box No 29 to my desk. My eyes burn. Then, my heart skips. On the top: a letter from McAllister, addressed to Evans — but it's 10 years too late. Beneath it, dissertations on women's sport governance, and women's sport and reproductive health; a literary analysis on the 'societal value of women's sport' from 1991; copies of FAW surveys for 'club interest in women's football' from 1995; invitations to join the new South Wales Women League in 1999; letters upon letters from McAllister, Jones, Adams and others concerning women's football. Advertisement Snagged inside a stack of FAW financial records, a letter addressed from Jones to Evans in 1996, in which Jones calls Evans 'a long-time friend, always our ally'. The letter is written on paper with Cardiff City Ladies letterhead. Then, the box's bottom laughs at me. The carpet is what the three women remember. It's what everyone who crept into the FAW's internal sanctum in the 1990s remembers. Crimson, luxurious, emblazoned every few metres with the governing body's crest, a ginormous roaring dragon. 'They must have sold an arm and a leg for those rugs,' says Adams. 'At least.' 'And here we were, begging for handouts,' Jones says. Advertisement Situated on Westgate Street, across the road from Cardiff Castle, the former FAW headquarters was described by many as stubbornly Victorian, dripping in an unyielding homage to the past. 'It was not a place for progression,' McAllister says. 'Or women.' But three women stood in front of Evans' mahogany desk. None had brought notes. No pitch or presentation was prepared. 'We were just three angry, angry women,' says Adams. 'That office would never have encountered the likes of us before.' The librarian behind the desk offers me a smile. It is 9:30 am, day three of my mission. Behind her, a trolley of boxes forms a Jenga tower. Advertisement 'The rest are in that closet.' Not feisty, but a word of that ilk. 'Persuasive, passionate…' Helen Croft reels off synonyms until something sticks. 'I can remember Alun saying something about those angry women after their meeting. That they were women to be reckoned with. And they were. They still are. Really, Alun probably felt he didn't have much of a choice.' In the Legend of the Letter, Croft is a forgotten and unheralded main character. In 1991, the former head of operations at the Football Association and now a grassroots mentor with UEFA left a teaching job at the University of Leeds to join the FAW as an administration assistant, offering executive support to Evans. Not long after her arrival, Croft remembers a letter. Advertisement 'Alun handed it to me. He asked, 'So? What do you think?'.' Croft, who played football for Cardiff City Ladies' rivals Tongwynlais with a 14-year-old Jayne Ludlow (Arsenal treble winner and future Wales manager) and recalls having to change for matches and training sessions in the adjacent portacabins rather than use the club's male facilities, represented an unorthodox sounding board for a governing body still wrestling with a reputation as an 'old boys' club'. 'Alun knew about my passion for women's sport,' says Croft. 'He also would've known I was politically naive. I was going to tell him the right thing to do for women, for the country.' An unspecified number of weeks after McAllister, Adams and Jones walked into Evans' office, they say Evans turned up unannounced at Ely's Trelai Park, Cardiff City Ladies' home stadium, for a match. His wife and two sons were in tow. Advertisement The following week, he attended a second match, this time with FAW treasurer Des Shanklin. The men stood. They nodded. They commented on passing angles. 'Alun thought the football was going to be very amateurish,' McAllister says. 'He told me later he was more impressed by how well organised Cardiff Ladies seemed to be. That's why he came to watch. He wanted to see if our professionalism reflected on the pitch.' At 3:55 pm on my third day, I put the lid on the final box. I am letterless. I consider crying. Instead, I walk a mile down to Aberystwyth's promenade, just out of sight of the library. Amid a xylophone of pastel beach-front buildings, the old Belle Vue Royal Hotel is an anaemic yellow. Its front doors are boarded up, its windows sealed, closed indefinitely since a 2018 fire ripped through a neighbouring building. Advertisement In August 1993, the hotel hosted an executive committee meeting in which Evans declared the FAW would take 'financial responsibility' for the following month's Women's Euro 1995 qualifier against Switzerland, the team's first competitive match with FAW recognition. Croft does not deny Evans' altruism. But in 1991, a collision course was set into motion. In October of that year, minutes in one of the boxes from the FAW's finance and general purposes committee describe a meeting with representatives from 'women's football in Wales to consider whether any support should be given to that aspect of the game'. It is the first mention of women's football in official FAW correspondence, the second arriving the following September when the FAW youth and development committee agreed that a 'more detailed survey of the situation be undertaken'. Advertisement By 1993, FIFA began requiring national associations 'to control all aspects of football, including women's football', as the youth and development committee noted in its January 1993 meeting minutes. In the same meeting minutes, nine recommendations concerning women's football are listed, including the 'reformation' of the women's national team under the FAW's direct control. A tenure peppered with controversy, including the hasty creation of the League of Wales, now known as the Cymru Premier, amid questions of Wales' autonomy as a footballing nation given that some men's clubs play in the English pyramid system, at mention of legacy Croft compares Evans' tenure to the Mayor of Casterbridge, the 1886 tragic Thomas Hardy novel about a powerful man whose past comes to haunt him. 'Alun was a great advocate for the women's game,' says Croft, who was responsible for organising the Euro 1995 qualifying campaign and subsequently appointed head of women and girls' football. Advertisement 'He was brave. He was the inspiration for it, but then, I was the worker who made it happen. And I don't think it would have happened without the letter from the girls, without it triggering in him some wish to tackle that inequality.' It is a common thread that runs through women's football in Wales and around the world: the need for powerful men to open doors but the onus on women to demand more doors be opened. The FAW's recognition of the women's national team was not a sunset moment. Recommendations from Croft for a full-time national team head coach, a goalkeeping coach and a video analyst were rejected in 1997, though infrastructure for the domestic game was approved. As early as 1998, Jones voiced interest in being a women's football representative on the FAW council. Not until 2013 was a woman elected to the council. Advertisement In 2003, the women's senior team were removed from qualifiers for Euro 2005 due to budget cuts amid the men's Euro 2004 qualifying campaign, setting the women's team back at least a decade. Even so, Adams and Croft recall the Euro 1995 qualification campaign with welcomed lucidity. Their first match against Switzerland was watched by 346 people in Cwmbran. A seven-day trek through Bielefeld (Germany), Effretikon (Switzerland) and Zagreb (Croatia) followed. Against Germany, Wales lost 12-0 twice. Not a single point from six matches was won. 'I think about that now,' Croft says. 'Those years with Wales were the most enjoyable of my career. It was a blank page. It was much simpler than it is now. But you know, we had to start somewhere.' This article originally appeared in The Athletic. Wales, Soccer, Women's Soccer, Women's Euros 2025 The Athletic Media Company
New York Times
09-07-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Wales Euro 2025: The search for a letter that led to the creation of a national team
More than 30 years have been and gone. No one has seen the letter. But those in Wales know of its legend. In 1992, three women — Laura McAllister, Michele Adams and Karen Jones — penned a missive to Alun Evans, the Football Association of Wales (FAW) general secretary, requesting an audience. He duly accepted. Advertisement The footballers walked into Evans' plush Cardiff office in the centre of the Welsh capital with anger. They walked out with a formally recognised Wales women's national team. Thirty-two years later, Wales are competing at Euro 2025, their first major tournament. It would not have happened without 'The Letter'. Lore such as this is ever-changing. In the case of women's football, where archives have been reliant on oral history due to a lack of resources, fact-checking is a matter of democracy. Neither McAllister, Adams, nor Jones can remember how they were summoned to Evans' office, when that took place, the exact date the letter was written and, sometimes, who actually wrote it. Adams and Jones maintain with unerring conviction that it was McAllister, their former Cardiff City team-mate. 'It'd be amazing if you could find it,' McAllister, once the national team captain and now a vice president of UEFA's executive committee, tells The Athletic at full time of Wales' 2-1 defeat against Denmark in the Nations League at Cardiff City Stadium in April. 'Alun kept almost everything.' On a June afternoon, the smell of cramped humanity during a stunning four-hour journey wafts through a late train to Aberystwyth, a small coastal town on Wales' western flank that will soon be home for the next 72 hours as The Athletic goes letter hunting. Evans, who died in 2011 aged 69, allegedly kept (nearly) every piece of correspondence from his time as general secretary between 1982 and 1995, along with much that bookended him. The boxes carrying that paperwork are known colloquially as the 'Alun Evans Papers'. They're housed in the National Library of Wales, a hulking grey monolith that hovers upon a hilltop overlooking the town, Mount Olympus-style. No one has sifted through the boxes. No one knows what lies inside but, apparently, there's a letter. Before my visit, a library spirit guide named Martin explains the decorum: 'I certainly hope,' Martin wrote in an email 24 hours before my trip, 'after all of this, and your travelling, all to trawl through the boxes of the Alun Evans Papers, that you do indeed manage to trace the letter in question. I accordingly wish you every success in this endeavour.' In 1972, Adams graced the back pages of the South Wales Echo newspaper for the second time. The first, three years earlier, had been a matter of innocent corruption: an 11-year-old girl unaware she was violating the 1922 law barring her from playing football in Wales. The second, however, was an indictment. In a back-page triptych featuring a female long-distance lorry driver and a female shop owner, Adams' face stared back as the third avatar: 14 years old, her hair tucked conspiringly in the upturned collar of her shirt amid a plague of boys playing football. Advertisement 'The headline was something like 'The Modern Woman',' recalls Adams. 'And there was this dirty photo of me in the Barry Boys' League. I was banned.' A month later, an Irishman named John J Rooney stood on her family's stoop with a lifeline. Two years earlier, the FAW, the country's governing body, had lifted its ban on women's football (but enacted a ban on girls playing with boys). Rooney had a women's team. He was putting together a league and, eventually, a Wales national team. He wanted Adams. The North Reading Room is library perfection. White ceilings high and arching. Wood desks adorned with small gold lamps with emerald tops. Everything is whispered. Including this: 'There are 37 boxes.' In the librarian's shaking arms, a charcoal box big enough for a two-tiered wedding cake. Adams remembers the rain: biblical, a baptism in the most literal sense. Three years after Rooney's first visit to her family home, she stood on a pitch-turned-bog in Llanelli, Wales, losing 3-2 against the Republic of Ireland in the national team's first match, in front of a crowd of 3,500. Her soggy kit clung beyond her knees, borrowed from Swansea City's academy. The FAW refused to supply the women with kits bearing the FAW crest, setting into motion the team's two-decade battle for recognition. 'I wouldn't call it a battle,' laughs Jones. 'Is it a battle when they don't even look at you sideways?' A word Adams and Jones prefer to use is 'deaths', or the manifold times the national team and domestic clubs folded between 1973 and 1992 due to lack of funds, resources, willpower from volunteers or a semblance of infrastructure for the domestic game. By 1992, the women's national team had all but evaporated. A resurrection looked impossible. The Alun Evans Papers vacillate between a harmonised treasure trove and a coffee-stained bottomless pit of various committee minutes as far back as 1886. I'm not technically allowed to say any more. But box No 8 houses a binder dedicated to the Welsh ancestry of nine-cap Wales international and Hollywood hardman Vinnie Jones. In 1992, Adams was Cardiff City Ladies' tigerish midfielder. The then-33-year-old was also the team's minibus driver. Such was the life of Welsh women's teams in 1991: schlepping to English leagues across the border on the weekend (in Cardiff City Ladies' case, Division 1 of the South West Women's league), enduring six-hour round trips for organised competition. Advertisement Beside Adams at the front of the bus was Jones, the club's veteran goalkeeper, map reader and the one running the women's team with Adams. Between them was McAllister, a 27-year-old midfielder pursuing a doctorate in political science at Cardiff University. The rest of the team rode in the back. 'One night we're driving home after a match,' says Adams. 'Laura slams her textbook shut, starts asking about the FAW.' The outburst inspired motherly glances from Adams and Jones, who regaled McAllister before with sorry tales of the past two decades. But McAllister's ire was rekindled in 1991, when the summer's European Championship was officially recognised by UEFA, European football's governing body, before the first Women's World Cup was held in China in November. 'And Laura is Laura,' Adams says. 'She doesn't drop things.' 'I just couldn't believe how much Karen and Michele put into establishing the club's infrastructure all by themselves,' says McAllister, comparing their efforts to those of London clubs she came to know while playing for Millwall Lionesses during her undergraduate studies at the London School of Economics two years earlier. 'I remember thinking, 'Why don't we go back to the FAW and show them how professional this is? The worst they can do is continue to not support us'.' By the time the minibus reached Wales' border, a letter was written. 'I believe it has a Cardiff City Ladies letterhead, if that helps.' McAllister's voice note plays in my ears as I haul box No 29 to my desk. My eyes burn. Then, my heart skips. On the top: a letter from McAllister, addressed to Evans — but it's 10 years too late. Beneath it, dissertations on women's sport governance, and women's sport and reproductive health; a literary analysis on the 'societal value of women's sport' from 1991; copies of FAW surveys for 'club interest in women's football' from 1995; invitations to join the new South Wales Women League in 1999; letters upon letters from McAllister, Jones, Adams and others concerning women's football. Advertisement Snagged inside a stack of FAW financial records, a letter addressed from Jones to Evans in 1996, in which Jones calls Evans 'a long-time friend, always our ally'. The letter is written on paper with Cardiff City Ladies letterhead. Then, the box's bottom laughs at me. The carpet is what the three women remember. It's what everyone who crept into the FAW's internal sanctum in the 1990s remembers. Crimson, luxurious, emblazoned every few metres with the governing body's crest, a ginormous roaring dragon. 'They must have sold an arm and a leg for those rugs,' says Adams. 'At least.' 'And here we were, begging for handouts,' Jones says. Situated on Westgate Street, across the road from Cardiff Castle, the former FAW headquarters was described by many as stubbornly Victorian, dripping in an unyielding homage to the past. 'It was not a place for progression,' McAllister says. 'Or women.' But three women stood in front of Evans' mahogany desk. None had brought notes. No pitch or presentation was prepared. 'We were just three angry, angry women,' says Adams. 'That office would never have encountered the likes of us before.' The librarian behind the desk offers me a smile. It is 9:30 am, day three of my mission. Behind her, a trolley of boxes forms a Jenga tower. 'The rest are in that closet.' Not feisty, but a word of that ilk. 'Persuasive, passionate…' Helen Croft reels off synonyms until something sticks. 'I can remember Alun saying something about those angry women after their meeting. That they were women to be reckoned with. And they were. They still are. Really, Alun probably felt he didn't have much of a choice.' In the Legend of the Letter, Croft is a forgotten and unheralded main character. In 1991, the former head of operations at the Football Association and now a grassroots mentor with UEFA left a teaching job at the University of Leeds to join the FAW as an administration assistant, offering executive support to Evans. Not long after her arrival, Croft remembers a letter. Advertisement 'Alun handed it to me. He asked, 'So? What do you think?'.' Croft, who played football for Cardiff City Ladies' rivals Tongwynlais with a 14-year-old Jayne Ludlow (Arsenal treble winner and future Wales manager) and recalls having to change for matches and training sessions in the adjacent portacabins rather than use the club's male facilities, represented an unorthodox sounding board for a governing body still wrestling with a reputation as an 'old boys' club'. 'Alun knew about my passion for women's sport,' says Croft. 'He also would've known I was politically naive. I was going to tell him the right thing to do for women, for the country.' An unspecified number of weeks after McAllister, Adams and Jones walked into Evans' office, they say Evans turned up unannounced at Ely's Trelai Park, Cardiff City Ladies' home stadium, for a match. His wife and two sons were in tow. The following week, he attended a second match, this time with FAW treasurer Des Shanklin. The men stood. They nodded. They commented on passing angles. 'Alun thought the football was going to be very amateurish,' McAllister says. 'He told me later he was more impressed by how well organised Cardiff Ladies seemed to be. That's why he came to watch. He wanted to see if our professionalism reflected on the pitch.' At 3:55 pm on my third day, I put the lid on the final box. I am letterless. I consider crying. Instead, I walk a mile down to Aberystwyth's promenade, just out of sight of the library. Amid a xylophone of pastel beach-front buildings, the old Belle Vue Royal Hotel is an anaemic yellow. Its front doors are boarded up, its windows sealed, closed indefinitely since a 2018 fire ripped through a neighbouring building. In August 1993, the hotel hosted an executive committee meeting in which Evans declared the FAW would take 'financial responsibility' for the following month's Women's Euro 1995 qualifier against Switzerland, the team's first competitive match with FAW recognition. Croft does not deny Evans' altruism. But in 1991, a collision course was set into motion. In October of that year, minutes in one of the boxes from the FAW's finance and general purposes committee describe a meeting with representatives from 'women's football in Wales to consider whether any support should be given to that aspect of the game'. Advertisement It is the first mention of women's football in official FAW correspondence, the second arriving the following September when the FAW youth and development committee agreed that a 'more detailed survey of the situation be undertaken'. By 1993, FIFA began requiring national associations 'to control all aspects of football, including women's football', as the youth and development committee noted in its January 1993 meeting minutes. In the same meeting minutes, nine recommendations concerning women's football are listed, including the 'reformation' of the women's national team under the FAW's direct control. A tenure peppered with controversy, including the hasty creation of the League of Wales, now known as the Cymru Premier, amid questions of Wales' autonomy as a footballing nation given that some men's clubs play in the English pyramid system, at mention of legacy Croft compares Evans' tenure to the Mayor of Casterbridge, the 1886 tragic Thomas Hardy novel about a powerful man whose past comes to haunt him. 'Alun was a great advocate for the women's game,' says Croft, who was responsible for organising the Euro 1995 qualifying campaign and subsequently appointed head of women and girls' football. 'He was brave. He was the inspiration for it, but then, I was the worker who made it happen. And I don't think it would have happened without the letter from the girls, without it triggering in him some wish to tackle that inequality.' It is a common thread that runs through women's football in Wales and around the world: the need for powerful men to open doors but the onus on women to demand more doors be opened. The FAW's recognition of the women's national team was not a sunset moment. Recommendations from Croft for a full-time national team head coach, a goalkeeping coach and a video analyst were rejected in 1997, though infrastructure for the domestic game was approved. Advertisement As early as 1998, Jones voiced interest in being a women's football representative on the FAW council. Not until 2013 was a woman elected to the council. In 2003, the women's senior team were removed from qualifiers for Euro 2005 due to budget cuts amid the men's Euro 2004 qualifying campaign, setting the women's team back at least a decade. Even so, Adams and Croft recall the Euro 1995 qualification campaign with welcomed lucidity. Their first match against Switzerland was watched by 346 people in Cwmbran. A seven-day trek through Bielefeld (Germany), Effretikon (Switzerland) and Zagreb (Croatia) followed. Against Germany, Wales lost 12-0 twice. Not a single point from six matches was won. 'I think about that now,' Croft says. 'Those years with Wales were the most enjoyable of my career. It was a blank page. It was much simpler than it is now. But you know, we had to start somewhere.'
Hindustan Times
08-07-2025
- Health
- Hindustan Times
Struggling with belly fat in perimenopause? Nutrition coach shares 10 foods to eat on repeat
During perimenopause, hormonal imbalances can make it especially difficult to shed stubborn belly fat. Declining estrogen levels, elevated cortisol, and increasing insulin resistance can create significant roadblocks to weight loss. Nutrition coach Karen Jones regularly addresses the many signs and challenges of perimenopause on her Instagram profile, sharing practical tips and strategies to help women manage symptoms and support their health during this transitional phase. Also read | Nutritionist shares 'fat loss secret' for people struggling with belly fat: 'Walk for just 2 to 5 minutes after meal' You can reduce viscera fat with the right nutrition and lifestyle. Karen, on July 4, shared an Instagram post addressing how perimenopause can affect the way we look, specifically the belly area. Visceral fat can get difficult to shed during this phase. 'I was doing everything right—eating clean, working out, cutting back on treats. But the belly fat stuck. My energy crashed. Bloating became my norm. As a nutrition coach, I knew this wasn't about willpower—it was hormonal,' she wrote. Karen suggested food items that should be consumed regularly to drop belly fat. 'The good news is you can reduce viscera fat with the right nutrition and lifestyle. These 10 foods changed everything for me. I eat them on repeat to stay full, reduce inflammation, and support fat loss without restriction or burnout,' Karen added. Also read | Woman who struggled with belly fat shows 'how lifting weights changes your stomach shape' 1. Eggs: Protein and choline to fuel metabolism and reduce fat storage. 2. Salmon: Omega-3s to lower inflammation and cortisol. 3. Chicken: Protein, zinc, and collagen help boost metabolism and provide hormone support. 4. Greek yogurt: Greek yoghurt is loaded with probiotics, protein for boosting gut and muscle health. 5. Leafy greens: Magnesium calms cortisol and supports estrogen metabolism. 6. Avocado: Healthy fats to balance blood sugar and reduce cravings. Also read | Fitness coach shares 4 foods to avoid if you are in a calorie deficit and want to reduce belly fat 7. Berries: Low sugar, high antioxidants; berries help in providing insulin support. 8. Sweet potatoes: Fibre, slow carbs for thyroid; help boost energy. 9. Seeds (chia, flax, pumpkin): Fibre, omega-3s and minerals for hormones and gut. 10. Cruciferous vegetables: Sulforaphane to support estrogen detox and reduce inflammation. Note to readers: This article is for informational purposes only and not a substitute for professional medical advice. Always seek the advice of your doctor with any questions about a medical condition.
Wales Online
01-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Wales Online
Mystery woman's daily ritual on North Wales beaches leaves onlookers astonished
Our community members are treated to special offers, promotions and adverts from us and our partners. You can check out at any time. More info Beachgoers on west Anglesey were left uplifted and profoundly moved when a mystery woman strode up to the water's edge. As the sun sunk towards the horizon, she began singing a hauntingly beautiful song as if serenading the sea itself. Those looking on settled down on the sand at Traeth Porthdafarch beach to watch the performance, wondering who the woman was and why she was doing it. It soon emerged she often sang at other beaches on the island, enchanting those lucky enough to witness her. Filming a clip of the shoreline song was Abigail Druce, who said it was a 'lovely moment'. She added: 'Everyone just stood still and watched her, definitely not something you see often. Just wow!' Another onlooker added: 'Absolutely beautiful voice, just her the sound of the waves and the sun setting. What a talent and a lovely surprise while we were sat with our beach fire and tea.' When the video was shared online, the woman's identity was revealed as Karen Jones, a former gemnologist and diamond grader from Waunfawr, Gwynedd. The 64-year-old artist sings at sunset most days as a lament to her elderly mother as she battles severe illness. The North Wales Live Whatsapp community for top stories and breaking news is live now - here's how to sign up Sometimes she performs to campervanners on the hills above her home in Waunfawr. From there, she can gaze out across to Anglesey where she dreams of moving to permanently. (Image: Karen Jones) Adding extra pathos to her singing was the death this week of Deiniolen's Annette Bryn Parri. Appointed musical director of the newly formed North Wales Police Choir last year, the distinguished pianist took time out to help Karen compose four songs for Spotify. Usually when she's singing al fresco, Karen performs Welsh folk song Cilfan y Coed (Shade in the Trees). 'It's about sanctuary – somewhere you can go to forget all your troubles,' she said. 'For me, singing these lovely songs is a matter of self-expression. I forget the hurt as I sing. 'I had singing lessons with my dear friend Annette. The day after she died I sung it in her memory at sunset with a big view of the Menai Straight behind me.' (Image: Karen Jones) On Anglesey, Karen performs on the beaches at Trearddur Bay, Porth Dafarch and Holyhead. She always sings at sunset. 'I go out every single evening,' she said. 'It's my way of saying thank you for the day. Otherwise the days pass so quickly: I want to make the most of them. 'When I go up on the hills, I always asked the campers if it's OK to sing. They're fine about it and afterward they're always very generous in their comments, just as people are on the beach when I sing.' For 18 years, Karen and her mother Esme Dyson ran Jones & Dyson Jewellers in Bangor and Caernarfon. When their prime stock was stolen at an exhibition in London, the business folded but the mother-and-daughter bond remained as strong as ever. Now that Esme is seriously ill, Karen's sunset singing has added poignancy – it's the one time she can set aside her worries. It's also meant a planned move to Anglesey has been put on hold. (Image: Karen Jones) In Waunfawr, Karen runs a 12-acre smallholding by herself while operating an Airbnb. With the Welsh Government's 182-day letting rule causing extra work and price-cutting, she's had enough. Last month the property went on the market, only to be withdrawn as her mother's health declined. But Karen still has her heart set on a move to west Anglesey and its glorious sunsets. 'It's such a deeply magical and spiritual place,' she said. 'From the hills behind me I can see the sun setting behind Holyhead Mountain and half of Anglesey. One day I will move there.' One beachgoer who heard her sing said Karen's 'eerily beautiful haunting voice' was reminiscent of the sirens of the sea. Explaining her connection to the coast, Karen cited Fibonacci's mathematical formula, a sequence of numbers that has been used to describe the logarithmic spirals of seashells. 'I love the island's beaches but it's deeper than that,' she said. 'I receive a spiritual connection via Fibonacci's eternal formula from the shells and from the waves. Beaches and the movement of the sea bring me confirmation of the eternal nature of consciousness. "Through song it enables me to express my heartfelt loss as I see people decline and die.' Sign up for the North Wales Live newsletter sent twice daily to your inbox Find the weather forecast where you live
