Mubeen Blogs

Squad has evolved since 2024 but the European champions are happy to embrace the tag of tournament favourites Spain knew, now everyone else does too. It was almost 1.30am on 15 July 2024 when Álvaro Morata, the captain who had lifted the Henry Delaunay trophy, headed down the slope and towards the team bus parked beneath the Olympic Stadium in Berlin. A European champion now, he came with a big black boombox, a small blue Euro 2024 wash bag, a mischievous look and a knowing grin. “Seems I have an eye for a player,” he said. Seems he did. A month earlier, when the mood was not so optimistic, Morata had been asked if Spain really had any world-class footballers, the kind that could win the Ballon d’Or and thus a major trophy. “Yes,” he replied and he had started naming them: Rodri, Pedri, Nico Williams, Lamine Yamal. Now, medal in his pocket, he left the naming to them. “You choose one,” he said. “Any one.” There were candidates everywhere. They were there in Berlin and, although Morata ...

Crash reportedly occurred shortly after departure from Butler Memorial airport at 11.30am on Sunday Sign up for the Breaking News US newsletter email Twelve people were killed in a plane crash near Butler, Missouri , on Sunday. According to Bates county emergency management, a private plane that had departed Butler Memorial airport shortly before 11.30am turned back before crashing near Business 49 Highway, Fox 4 reported. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/NgZKedx

⚽️ World Cup kick-off 6pm EST, 11pm BST, 8am Sun AEST ⚽️ Player guide | Bracketology | Golden Boot | Email Jeff While it was always a reach to project this tournament would feel like 104 Super Bowls, some matchups inevitably fit the blockbuster billing. Brazil and Morocco’s opener in Group C is this tournament’s first glamour fixture, pitting the five-time champions against the dark horse darlings of 2022, who arrive in great form. Few know exactly what to expect from Carlo Ancelotti’s first World Cup on the touchline. A gilded figure on the club side, Ancelotti picked a squad teeming with stout center-backs and dynamic dribblers, but with some uncertainty in midfield, at full-back, and up top. Endrick finally taking a long-awaited leap would do wonders to assuage those latter concerns, and will most likely be necessary if Brazil are to snap their 24-year drought. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/f8nrhqs

Despite missing key players, Hajime Moriyasu’s side have built strength in depth to challenge the traditional order In 2002 there was a sense that Japan had slightly missed an opportunity. South Korea may have enjoyed the benefit of some favourable refereeing, but they also impressed. They were quick, technically good and tactically extremely flexible and they progressed to the semi-final of their home World Cup. Japan did not do much wrong, topping their group before going down 1-0 to Turkey in the last 16, but the contrast with their co-hosts was inevitably underwhelming. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/Wt7zOjG

Eljay Crisp-Carr was arrested on Thursday, and police are still searching for another suspect in Toledo shooting Police in Ohio have arrested a suspect in a recent shooting that wounded 12 people at a crowded weekend neighborhood street festival. Eljay Crisp-Carr, 20, was taken into custody on Thursday and charged with 11 counts of felonious assault. Court documents do not list an attorney for him, and no one answered a call to a phone number associated with him on Friday morning. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/RWT3yxV

The American author received ‘thousands of rejections’ over two decades before finally hitting gold with her first published novel Just as I am about to interview this year’s Women’s prize winner , debut American novelist Virginia Evans, at the party on a drizzly evening in a leafy London square, we are interrupted because someone wants to congratulate her. The fan is Richard Curtis. A warm-hearted weepy with a sprinkling of gentle humour, Evans’s prize-winning novel The Correspondent is prime Curtis material. In fact, he is too late. “I think he just wants to be my friend,” Evans jokes modestly – Notting Hill is her favourite movie of all time. A film of The Correspondent is already in the pipeline with Jane Fonda playing 73-year-old Sybil Van Antwerp, the crotchety correspondent of the title. Evans will be one of the producers and will have a cameo appearance, “walking a dog or something”. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/qRFb3Mh

New Farm Bill places caps on non-US foods; nutritionists say it restricts availability of healthy meals for kids School nutrition workers and advocates have “lots of concerns about bananas”, said Erin Ogden, policy associate for federal child nutrition programs at the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI). Bananas are nutrient-dense foods that many children like. That makes them popular offerings in school cafeterias, since any healthy food that a kid will eat prevents waste and ensures that child isn’t eating either nothing or something less wholesome instead. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/8eCcl0x