England midfielder Jude Bellingham has been named in FIFA 23’s prestigious Team of the Year, which honours the best players of 2022. EA SPORTS received over 10m votes worldwide as 100 players were reduced to a final XI, including Paris Saint-Germain duo Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe as well as Ballon d’Or winner Karim Benzema. Selected from Premier League teams were Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk and Manchester City’s Kevin De Bruyne.Mbappe won the highest percentage of votes among attackers (23 per cent), while De Bruyne was the majority pick among the nominated midfielders (21 per cent).Champions League winners Real Madrid…
Author: National Tone
Saturday’s Clarence House Chase meeting at Ascot, featuring the highly-anticipated meeting of Edwardstone and Energumene, has been abandoned due to frozen ground.Freezing temperatures this week have obliterated the jumps racing calendar with Ascot becoming the 10th fixture to fall foul of the weather since Monday. The latest cancellation is a major blow for racing fans with the Grade One Clarence House prize at Ascot set to provide a huge clash of stars for the second year in a row. However, Ascot had raised early concerns about the meeting, reporting the track frozen in places from Tuesday and deploying covers in…
Here’s a round-up of Al Jazeera’s Middle East coverage this week.Egypt has to make hard economic choices, the death toll keeps rising in the occupied West Bank, and the execution of an Iranian official threatens further isolation. Here’s this week’s round-up, written by Danylo Hawaleshka. The Egyptian pound has certainly seen better days. In less than a year, the currency has lost almost half its value against the dollar. But that’s mainly been a result of meeting the stipulations of a loan issued by the International Monetary Fund to bail out the Egyptian economy to the tune of $3bn. The…
Manchester United have gone top of the Women’s Super League after substitute Rachel Williams scored a late goal to give them a 1-0 victory at Reading.Williams’ 87th-minute winner saw United move ahead of Chelsea on goal difference at the top after the Blues’ match against Liverpool earlier on Sunday was abandoned after six minutes due to a frozen pitch. Third-placed Arsenal were also denied the chance to become WSL leaders after their game at Brighton on Sunday evening was also postponed due to an unplayable pitch.United looked to be in for a frustrating afternoon at Reading as Katie Zelem missed…
Maher Younis, cousin of recently released Karim Younis, freed after four decades in Israeli prisons.The second longest-serving Palestinian prisoner, Maher Younis, has been released after serving four decades in Israeli prisons. Maher, 65, was released from Eshel prison near Beer Sabe’ (Beer Sheva) in southern Israel just before 7am (04:00 GMT) on Thursday. He was arrested in 1983 and convicted alongside his cousin, Karim Younis, in Israeli courts of killing an Israeli soldier in Syria’s Israeli-occupied Golan Heights in 1980. Karim, released two weeks ago, was the longest serving Palestinian prisoner, having been arrested earlier than Maher. The cousins are…
Roma have rejected an offer from Tottenham for forward Nicolo Zaniolo with the Serie A side valuing the Italian at £35m, according to Sky in Italy.Sky Sports News understands Spurs have not followed up on initial interest in Brighton forward Leandro Trossard and are now looking at other attacking options, with the club renewing a long-standing interest in Zaniolo. Roma have turned down an unsatisfactory offer from Spurs, who remain interested in signing the 23-year-old. Thursday 19th January 7:00pm Kick off 8:00pm Jose Mourinho’s side are happy to sell Zaniolo in this window and are also prepared to do a…
Law minister says existing judge appointment process opaque and should change, as legal experts fear direct threat to judicial independence.Senior officials in India’s right-wing government say they want to have a bigger role in choosing judges, a demand several lawyers and judges say threatens the independence of the judiciary. Judges for the Supreme Court and the 25 high courts across India are appointed through a quarter-century-old mechanism that involves both sitting judges and government officials. A group of senior judges, known as the collegium, puts up candidates’ names to the law ministry, and these names are approved if they clear…
When Khaled Al Sabawi was invited in 2015 to join the Young Global Leaders (YGL), set up by World Economic Forum head Klaus Schwab, the Palestinian Canadian son of refugees from Gaza was honoured. Al Sabawi’s invite to the exclusive organisation of “exceptional people”, was in recognition of his founding TABO, an initiative dedicated to expanding Palestinian property ownership, and Gaza-based Open Screenplay, which helps budding screenwriters make worldwide connections. That recognition was a big deal; YGL’s ties to the WEF meant access to some of the world’s biggest names and invitations to the WEF’s annual summit which is being…
Tributes have poured in for outgoing New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern who has announced she will step down from her position no later than early February and will not seek reelection. Ardern’s shock announcement on Thursday that she had “no more in the tank” to continue as New Zealand’s prime minister was greeted first with surprise and then praise by fellow politicians and supporters at home and abroad. Arden, 42, said it had been a tough five and a half years as prime minister and that she was only human and needed to now step aside. “Politicians are human.…
The United Nations has issued a statement expressing “concern” after Guatemala announced it would investigate a former anti-corruption investigator assigned to the country. Iván Velásquez, a Colombian who led the UN’s anti-corruption efforts in Guatemala from 2013 to 2019, is under investigation for “illegal, arbitrary and abusive acts”, according to prosecutors in Guatemala. But critics have warned the probe is the latest effort from Guatemala’s government to backtrack on anti-corruption efforts. UN Secretary-General António Guterres “expresses his concern at the numerous reports suggesting that criminal prosecution is being exercised against those who sought to shed light on cases of corruption…