Mubeen Blogs

Dawn of the Hundred may have ‘devalued’ the competition, but events at New Road show there is still life in county cricket The Metro Bank One-Day Cup has been a bit of a sleeper hit this summer. Words such as “devalued” and “second tier” have followed the tournament since the dawn of the Hundred in 2021 but there has been a quiet resurgence of late. The prolonged dry spell has provided certainty and pleasant conditions. But the big one has been the Hundred’s tractor beam slightly easing. Essentially, the full availability of England players – plus one extra overseas spot per franchise – has lessened the strain on county 50-over squads and upped their quality a touch. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/4yfuWHb

Underbelly, Bristo Square, Edinburgh Audience members are invited to examine what they will do with their lives in this earnest shared thought experiment If you could hold the years of your life in your hands like coins, would you choose to spend them differently? This is the thoughtful, earnest tone of Ten Ways to Die Happy, an existential but somewhat formulaic Italian production (performed here in English) created by Emanuele Aldrovandi and Jacopo Giacomoni. In this gentle gameshow, we are asked not just to consider how we would use the finite time we have, but to put this thought experiment into practice. Eight people are plucked at random from the audience. My number is called, so I don a white robe, choose a new name for my new life, and take a seat on stage. Perla Ambrosini is our ethereal host, standing in fabric armour in a shallow pool of water. Each of us has a tray of flowers that we throw into the pool, every plastic bud representing the “energy” available to invest in wor...

Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh With the air of a hungover postmortem, Richardson gives a head-spinning account of an encounter with an older comedian If you’re partial to a bit of gossip and scandal, Harriet Richardson is your girl. In this gloriously juicy debut hour, she dishes the dirt on the DMs she received from an older comedian and the intense, utterly absorbing events that followed. Yes, she found his eBay account. And yes, she spent six months tracking him down on a dating app only to play his profile song hundreds of times. But what else is a girl driven by obsession supposed to do? We meet Richardson, who until now has worked primarily as a performance artist, all smiles and ready to share. She takes us back to the creation of her 2024 viral piece 100 Dates , in which she spent Valentine’s Day online speed-dating in an attempt to analyse her relationship with infatuation and connection. The comedian in question used the project as the opening line of his first message to her...

Astronomers say viewing conditions promising for this year’s shower, and 50 to 100 meteors an hour may be visible The Perseid summer light show is back, and viewing conditions are especially promising across the northern hemisphere. The meteor shower’s is expected to peak on Wednesday night into Thursday morning, and coincides with a total solar eclipse across Spain, Iceland and Greenland and a six-planet parade – though the best time to view the fireballs will come after totality. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/zYXwFsn

Warning of increased activity as patrols spent 21 days in July shadowing Moscow’s ships in Dover Strait and North Sea The Royal Navy has warned of increasing Russian activity around the UK’s waters after it spent 21 days in July monitoring Moscow’s ships. Naval operations to monitor Russian vessels increased by 25% last month compared with the previous year, with warships making repeated voyages through the strait of Dover and the North Sea. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/C9gruUJ

While able to play deeper, the onus will also be on Arsenal’s £75m signing to provide creativity in an attack that has struggled to break down the low block Data shows deal could be another set-piece masterstroke If there was one of his many assets Newcastle supporters grew to love above all about Bruno Guimarães then it was best summed up by the man himself after being unveiled as Arsenal’s new £75m signing . “That’s a tough one,” said the Brazil midfielder when asked what fans in north London can expect from him. “I would say I can pass the ball, run a lot and play like a warrior. I’ll never give up.” After more than four years on Tyneside and having seen Alexander Isak, Anthony Gordon and Sandro Tonali precede Eddie Howe’s departure, Guimarães – who was devastated after missing a penalty for the Seleção in their defeat against Norway in the last 16 of the World Cup – was determined to seize his opportunity. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/4wPtBMl

Vinícius Júnior and Yan Diomande are among more than 100 players at an agency owned by the hip-hop legend In the end there was a clear winner. And Jay-Z’s latest victory came only 24 hours after the first record featuring him actually rapping for four years had been released by his wife, Beyoncé, on an extended remix pack of Morning Dew (Donk). These days, the man who remains one of the most influential artists in hip-hop has his fingers in many pies, from the streaming service Tidal and his own streetwear brand, to champagne and cognac. But it is Roc Nation Sports – an offshoot of his entertainment company of the same name founded in 2008 – making headlines in the summer transfer window. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/ycG76DR