Nottingham Forest seals late 2-1 win at West Ham to pile pressure on former manager Nuno

LONDON (AP) — Nottingham Forest piled the pressure on former manager Nuno Espirito Santo with a 2-1 win at West Ham on Tuesday.

Morgan Gibbs-White won and then converted a penalty in the 89th minute to seal a crucial victory in a clash between two teams fighting for survival in the Premier League.

Forest moved seven points clear of West Ham and the relegation zone. Defeat extended West Ham's winless run to 10 games in the league and likely raise questions over Nuno's position after less than four months in the job.

Nuno was fired by Forest earlier this season after a fallout with owner Evangelos Marinakis and was quickly hired by West Ham to boost its bid stay in England's top flight. But he has managed just two wins in 16 games — losing nine.

The latest defeat came despite West Ham going ahead through Murillo's own goal in the 13th.

Nicolas Dominguez headed in an equalizer 10 minutes into the second half. Late on, when West Ham goalkeeper Alphonse Areola crashed into Gibbs-White, Forest had the chance to seal the win, following a VAR review.

Gibbs-White, who took a heavy blow to the face, stepped up and fired his spot kick down the center of the goal for his sixth of the season.

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West Ham United's Jean-Clair Todibo, left, and Nottingham Forest's Ola Aina in action during the English Premier League soccer match between West Ham United and Nottingham Forest in London, Tuesday Jan. 6, 2026. (Bradley Collyer/PA via AP)

Nottingham Forest's Ola Aina, left, and West Ham United's Oliver Scarles in action during the English Premier League soccer match between West Ham United and Nottingham Forest in London, Tuesday Jan. 6, 2026. (Bradley Collyer/PA via AP)

West Ham United's Taty Castellanos, center, and teammates celebrate and own goal by Nottingham Forest's Murillo during the English Premier League soccer match between West Ham United and Nottingham Forest in London, Tuesday Jan. 6, 2026. (John Walton/PA via AP)

West Ham United's Crysencio Summerville, right, and Nottingham Forest's Elliot Anderson in action during the English Premier League soccer match between West Ham United and Nottingham Forest in London, Tuesday Jan. 6, 2026. (Bradley Collyer/PA via AP)

Nottingham Forest's Morgan Gibbs-White, center, celebrates scoring during the English Premier League soccer match between West Ham United and Nottingham Forest in London, Tuesday Jan. 6, 2026. (John Walton/PA via AP)

TOKYO (AP) — Japan's nuclear watchdog said Wednesday it is scrapping the safety screening for two reactors at the Hamaoka nuclear power plant in central Japan after the plant's operator was found to have fabricated data about earthquake risks, in a setback to Japan's attempts to accelerate reactor restarts to boost nuclear energy use.

Chubu Electric Power Co. had applied for safety screening to resume operations at the No. 3 and 4 reactors at the Hamaoka nuclear power plant in 2014 and 2015. Two other reactors at the plant are being decommissioned, and a fifth is idle.

The plant, about 200 kilometers (125 miles) west of Tokyo, is located on a coastal area known for potential risks from so-called Nankai Trough megaquakes.

The Nuclear Regulation Authority said it started an internal investigation in February after receiving a tip from a whistleblower that the utility had for years provided fabricated data that underestimated potential seismic risks.

The regulator suspended the screening for the reactors after it confirmed the falsification and the utility acknowledged the fabrication in mid-December, said Shinsuke Yamanaka, the watchdog's chair. The NRA is also considering inspecting the utility headquarters.

“Ensuring safety is the first and foremost responsibility for nuclear plant operators and (data fabrication) is an act of betrayal to their task and one that destroys nuclear safety," Yamanaka said.

The scandal surfaced Monday when Chubu Electric President Kingo Hayashi acknowledged that workers at the utility used inappropriate seismic data with an alleged intention to underestimate seismic risks and apologized. He pledged to establish an independent panel for investigation.

The screening, including data that had been approved earlier, would have to start from scratch or possibly be rejected entirely, Yamanaka said.

The move is a setback at a time Japan's government seeks to accelerate reactor restarts to cope with rising energy costs and pressure to reduce carbon emissions.

Public opinion in Japan remains divided due to lingering safety concerns after the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi meltdowns.

Of Japan's 57 commercial reactors, 13 are currently in operation, 20 are offline and 24 others are being decommissioned, according to NRA.

This aerial photo shows Hamaoka nuclear power plant, owned by the Cubu Electric Power Co., in Omaezaki, central Japan, March 26, 2025. (Minoru Iwasaki/Kyodo News via AP)