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Through four games, Belgium have retained 57% of possession with a 65% field tilt – a possession metric weighing only final-third touches – but haven’t found a way to maximize that advantage.
While possession can be a noisy statistic, viewing it in stylistic terms can be informative. So far at this World Cup, Belgium have won the possession battle in all four of their games, with Senegal playing them closest in a 52-48 split. The United States have maintained a 58% share of the ball in their four games, neck-and-neck with Garcia’s Belgium. If Mauricio Pochettino’s side can keep the ball off Belgian feet more often than not, it could unsettle the Red Devils.
Continue reading...Despite ‘a setback that will hurt for eternity’, the co-hosts exit with heads held high after bringing pride, passion and soul
On Monday music pulsated from some of the bars on Calle Genova, a narrow thoroughfare in Mexico City’s heart that rarely lives in silence. The clock was yet to strike 11am, but, spilling out on to the street, a healthy crowd of patrons were picking up where they had left off. Perhaps they had never stopped at all. National team shirts were on full display and, had anyone lived under a news blackout for 15 hours, they may have drawn a wildly different conclusion about the previous night’s events.
The truth was more evident to anyone who, upon returning from Estadio Azteca, made a beeline for Paseo de la Reforma. Long after Mexico’s last-16 victory over Ecuador this vast boulevard had been teeming, an affirmative national moment bringing 1.4 million people on to the streets. But it was virtually empty three and a half hours after England had shattered the dreams of El Tri, the clean-up operation from the evening’s mass screening already in full swing and remaining revellers confined to the sidestreets.
Continue reading...Outgoing PM will stress British commitment to defence spending at meeting in Ankara to counter Trump rebukes
Keir Starmer will seek to work with European allies to shore up support for Nato at its summit in Ankara on Tuesday amid concerns that Donald Trump could further destabilise the military alliance with threats over defence spending.
Downing Street said the prime minister and other international leaders would be focused on “building a stronger and more European Nato” as they attempt to address the US president’s concerns in the Turkish capital.
Continue reading...It ended with a goal from a tall, slightly ungainly figure driving through the centre-forward position – but perhaps not the one that the narrative demanded. In stoppage time, Mikel Merino ran on to Ferran Torres’s through-ball and, with impressive calm after a scrappy game that had largely lacked it, rolled the winner past Diogo Costa.
He celebrated, as he had after his winner against Germany at the Euros two years ago, with a run around the corner flag, echoing his father’s celebration after scoring for Osasuna in Stuttgart in 1991.
Continue reading...Outgoing PM will stress British commitment to defence spending at meeting in Ankara to counter Trump rebukes
Keir Starmer will seek to work with European allies to shore up support for Nato at its summit in Ankara on Tuesday amid concerns that Donald Trump could further destabilise the military alliance with threats over defence spending.
Downing Street said the prime minister and other international leaders would be focused on “building a stronger and more European Nato” as they attempt to address the US president’s concerns in the Turkish capital.
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Some of the greatest footballers of a generation played their final World Cup match this summer.
(Image credit: Lars Baron)
Celeste Amarilla called striker a ‘colonised Cameroonian’
French Football Federation to file criminal charges
France’s Kylian Mbappé has hit back at a Paraguayan senator, describing her as a “despicable woman” after she launched a racist attack on him. Mbappé’s penalty proved the difference in an ill-tempered match as France beat Paraguay 1-0 in Philadelphia on Saturday to advance to the quarter-finals.
Celeste Amarilla wrote a long tirade on X, describing Mbappé as a “colonised Cameroonian, desperately trying to pass himself off as French” and as a “brute who had not learned to write”. Paraguay’s players should have slapped him after the match, she added.
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China test-launched a long-range ballistic missile Monday from a nuclear submarine in the South Pacific in a rare demonstration of strength.
“The test launch complies with international law and international practice, and is not directed at any specific country or target,” the Chinese navy said, according to the state-run news agency, Xinhua. It also reported that “relevant countries” had been notified in advance.
The dummy warhead “landed precisely within the designated waters,” Xinhua said, meaning that it was consistent with the area previously identified to those relevant parties.
Read More: How Hormuz Could Shape China’s Taiwan Strategy
Despite prior notification, the response from neighboring nations was one of heightened alarm.
Winston Peters, New Zealand’s Foreign Minister, said in a statement that the test was an “unwelcome and concerning development.”
“We, like our neighbors in other Pacific countries, have no interest in China using the South Pacific as a testing site for missile capability,” he said.
Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara criticized China at a press conference in Tokyo, saying it is "continuously increasing its defense spending at a high rate without sufficient transparency and expanding its nuclear missile capabilities, including intercontinental ballistic missiles, rapidly and extensively."
Australia’s Foreign Minister, Penny Wong, said the test was “destabilizing” for the region.
Xinhua called Monday’s exercise a “routine arrangement of the annual training” of the navy, but its long-range ballistic missile tests are rare. The most recent was two years prior; before that, it had been about four decades.
A Pentagon analysis of the 2024 missile test said it was “probably to practice a wartime nuclear deterrence operation during peacetime and validate its ability to deliver a nuclear weapon to full range.”
American officials have long been concerned that China’s military buildup could come to a head in a conflict over Taiwan, a self-governing democracy that Beijing claims as a territory. Tensions in the Pacific have recently heightened over the potential of war, especially because China has increased military exercises near the island.
The Chinese government did not specify what missile was being tested Monday, but military experts say that it was likely a JL-2 or JL-3, both of which were displayed at a military parade last year in Beijing. The latter missile has a range of over 6,000 miles (10,000 km), meaning that it could be launched from Chinese coastal waters and hit parts of the continental United States.
PM stepped in over proposal to shift World Cup match to an earlier time, amid concerns it would benefit Mexico
Keir Starmer intervened through diplomatic channels to oppose Fifa’s plan to bring forward England’s World Cup game against Mexico, amid concerns the change would hand the hosts an unfair advantage, it is understood.
The prime minister instructed officials to argue against proposals to move the kick-off from 1am UK time (6pm local time) to earlier after being alerted by the Football Association that it would reduce England’s time to acclimatise to the high altitude in Mexico City.
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Всем привет, меня зовут Роман и я энтузиаст. Не так чтобы конкретно в чем‑то, а так, вообще. По долгу службы я тесно связан с GNU/Linux отчего часто и подолгу смотрю в черный экран с буквами. И вот, в один из таких эпизодов я подумал:
- А зачем мне мышь, если я постоянно пишу в консоль? Двигать окна? А зачем их двигать, если они все одинаковые?..
Очевидно, в этом порыве я не пионер. Мои эксперименты с оконными менеджерами привели меня к динамическому тайлингу и настал черед устройств ввода.
Читать далееUpdated document also commits party to cracking down on inducements for online gambling, putting pressure on Albanese government to toughen reforms
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Labor will water down its opposition to mandatory jail sentences but has abandoned an earlier draft of its policy platform that would have seen the party scrap its longheld stance entirely.
The draft platform obtained by Guardian Australia also commits Labor to cracking down on inducements for online wagering, putting pressure on the Albanese government to toughen up its proposed reforms to gambling advertising.
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Richard Marles said he doubted China tested the long-range weapon yesterday in response to Anthony Albanese being in the Pacific to sign a new defence alliance with Fiji but said Australia remained deeply concerned by the development. He told ABC News:
At the end of the day, what we’re seeing here is a long-range missile test from China, which China itself has said is nuclear-capable … This is China demonstrating a much greater range in terms of being able to deploy a nuclear weapon.
And ultimately what that is, is deeply destabilising.
Our fundamental issue in relation to China is that we have seen a very dramatic military buildup by China without that strategic reassurance [to our neighbours].
There really isn’t an explanation as to why they are building the capabilities that they are and that is fundamentally destabilising.
I think the system is handling the matter as it should … I think it’s appropriate that the legal process takes its course.
Continue reading...Several top Democratic figures call on beleaguered Maine Senate candidate, who denies accusation, to step down
Calls for Graham Platner, the Democratic candidate for US Senate in Maine, to withdraw his candidacy intensified Monday after a woman accused him of sexual assault in an exclusive report by Politico.
While Platner denied the claims, many top Democratic figures quickly called on the beleaguered nominee to step down.
Continue reading...Hundreds of thousands of people gathered in the Iranian capital of Tehran on Monday for the funeral of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader who was killed in the opening hours of the U.S.-Israel war with Iran.
Khamenei’s body will be taken through both Iran and Iraq in a six-day procession honoring the late religious leader. His casket will travel from Tehran to Qom, and then it will move through the Iraqi cities of Najaf and Karbala before a burial in his hometown, Mashhad, on Friday.
Monday’s large-scale gatherings occurred in extreme heat, and the government used water cannons to cool off attendants. Mourners in black gathered closely around a trailer with Khamenei’s casket, which was draped with the flag of Iran, as it slowly made its way through the streets.
While the carefully orchestrated ceremony is meant to showcase the strength of the Islamic Republic, the ongoing war shifted the tone of the proceedings. Many attendees sang “death to America” while waving red flags to symbolize revenge, while others held anti-U.S. and anti-Israel signs, including those with the words “Kill Trump.”
Anti-American sentiment has swelled even as the U.S. and Iran continue peace talks, after signing a memorandum of understanding last month. Negotiations are considered fragile as airstrikes continue throughout the region, including actions in the Strait of Hormuz and exchanges between Israel and Lebanon.
Senior Iranian officials attended the procession, as well as a number of foreign dignitaries. Notably absent, however, was Iran’s new Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei. He has not appeared in public since his father’s death.














Texas' App Store Accountability Act requires minors to have their parents' permission to download most apps. The Supreme Court says the law can go into effect as lawsuits continue in lower courts.
(Image credit: Paul Ellis)
Several top Democratic figures call on beleaguered Maine Senate candidate, who denies accusation, to step down
Calls for Graham Platner, the Democratic candidate for US Senate in Maine, to withdraw his candidacy intensified on Monday after a woman accused him of sexual assault in an exclusive report by Politico.
While Platner denied the claims, many top Democratic figures quickly called on the beleaguered nominee to step down.
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