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Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah laughs with teammate Jeremie Frimpong during a team training session in Kirkby Tuesday, on the eve of their UEFA Champions League match against…
Italian fashion designer Valentino Garavani has died, his foundation said yesterday. Usually known only by his first name, Valentino was 93, and had retired in 2008. Founder of the eponymous brand, Valentino scaled the heights of haute couture, created a business empire and introduced a new colour to the fashion world, the so-called ‘Valentino Red’. “Valentino Garavani passed away at his Roman residence, surrounded by his loved ones,” the foundation said on Instagram. The lying in state will be tomorrow and Thursday, while the funeral will take place in Rome on Friday at 11am (1000 GMT), it added. Source link
Jannik Sinner and Madison Keys made winning starts to their Australian Open title defences Tuesday. Sinner, who is aiming for a third straight title at Melbourne Park, spent only 68 minutes on court in his first outing of the 2026 season before Hugo Gaston retired because of injury while losing 6-2, 6-1. The world number two consoled the weeping Frenchman and wished him well in his recovery before declaring himself delighted with the results of his off-season training. “I was very happy,” said the Italian. “We put in a lot of work to be back on court and it felt great. Obviously not the way you want to win the match, but from my side I’m very happy to be back on court.” Sinner showed some signs of rust at the start and was forced to save three break points in his opening service game before finding his imperious touch. American Keys made an even shakier start to her maiden Grand Slam title defence before rallying for a 7-6(6), 6-1 victory over Ukrainian Oleksandra Oliynykova.A double break down thanks to some untimely double faults, Keys trailed 4-0 before forcing a tiebreak in which the unorthodox Oliynykova caused chaos with her deep, looping shots. Oliynykova brought up two set points but Keys erased the deficit with some trademark big-hitting to eventually snatch a tense tiebreak before racing through the second stanza. “I think at the start I just felt like I was playing just a little timid and not really trusting my first instinct,” said the ninth seed. “I felt like I kind of kept changing my mind on what I actually wanted to do. I felt like I was reacting instead of having a plan of what I wanted to do.” Oliynykova, who was playing in her first major, wore temporary face tattoos – blue flowers that matched her outfit and the court – but she was put into the shade in the fashion stakes by Osaka. In one of the boldest fashion statements ever seen on a tennis court, Osaka entered Rod Laver Arena carrying a white parasol with a voluminous trailing veil and wore a wide-brimmed hat above a long turquoise tunic with crimped white trousers. The 2019 and 2021 Melbourne Park champion’s tennis was at times less impressive than her self-designed outfit but Osaka finished strongly to beat Croatian Antonia Ruzic 6-3, 3-6, 6-4and take her place in the second round. Leylah Fernandez, the 2021 US Open runner-up, was not so fortunate and exited with a 6-2, 7-6(1) loss to Janice Tjen, who became the first Indonesian to win a match at the Australian Open in 28 years. There were comfortable first-round wins for fifth seed Elena Rybakina, in-form Tokyo Olympics gold medallist Belinda Bencic and 2017 French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko. In the men’s draw, 2023 finalist Stefanos Tsitsipas had to rally from a set down to beat Japan’s Shintaro Mochizuki and avoid a first-round exit for the second year in a row. Sinner’s compatriot Lorenzo Musetti, the fifth seed, also advanced after his opponent Raphael Collignon retired while trailing 4-6, 7-6(3), 7-5, 3-2. Eighth seed Ben Shelton, who lost to Sinner in last year’s semi-finals, beat Ugo Humbert in three tight sets while his fellow American Taylor Fritz, seeded one spot lower, needed four to get past French opposition in the shape of Valentin Royer. Melbourne Park’s favourite Frenchman of recent years, Gael Monfils, bid farewell to the tournament for the 20th and final time after a 6-7(3), 7-5, 6-4, 7-5 loss to Australian qualifier Dane Sweeny. Monfils, who has won 13 ATP titles in a career stretching back to 2004, said in October that this year would be his last in tennis. “My journey started in 2003 with you guys, now we are in 2026 and somehow it’s the finish line,” the 39-year-old, who will retire at the end of the season, told the crowd after receiving a standing ovation. “Thank you so much for this amazing ride.” Related Story Source link
The UN World Food Programme (WFP) has reported that an estimated 318 million people worldwide now face crisis levels of hunger or worse, with hundreds of…
Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos yesterday said a “significant” discovery of natural gas had been made near the country’s sole producing offshore site. About 98bn cubic feet (2.8bn cubic metres) of natural gas – enough to provide power to 5.7mn homes for a year – has been found east of the Malampaya Field near the island of Palawan, Marcos said. The Philippines has some of the region’s highest energy costs and faces a looming crisis as the Malampaya gas field, which supplies about 40% of power to the archipelago’s main island, Luzon, is expected to run dry within a few years. The discovery – 5kms east of the Malampaya Field – is the first in more than a decade and suggested the potential to produce even more, Marcos said. “This helps Malampaya’s contribution and strengthens our domestic gas supply for many years to come. Initial testing showed that the well flowed at 60mn cubic feet per day,” Marcos said in a statement. Source link
Iran’s national police chief said people who were “deceived” into joining demonstrations the authorities have deemed “riots” would receive lighter punishment if they turned themselves in within three days. “Young people who became unwittingly involved in the riots are considered to be deceived individuals, not enemy soldiers”, and “will be treated with leniency by the Islamic republic system”, Ahmad-Reza Radan said, adding they had “a maximum of three days” to surrender. Iranian officials have said the demonstrations were peaceful before turning into “riots” fuelled by US and Israel and aimed at destabilising the Islamic republic. Source link
Bodo/Glimt’s Kasper Hogh celebrates after scoring against Manchester City. Manchester City suffered a humiliating 3-1 defeat against Bodo/Glimt as the Norwegian minnows caused one of the biggest shocks in Champions League history. Pep Guardiola’s side were blown away by Kasper Hogh’s first half brace and a second half strike from Jens Petter Hauge at the ecstatic Aspmyra Stadion. Rayan Cherki got one back moments after Hauge’s goal, but Rodri’s dismissal for two bookings left City in tatters as Bodo/Glimt celebrated their first ever win in the Champions League group phase. In a fishing town situated 200km north of the Arctic Circle, the 2023 European champions were caught cold in freezing temperatures of minus two degrees. Bodo’s entire population of only 55,000 people could almost fit into City’s Etihad Stadium. But Kjetil Knutsen’s underdogs ignored the huge financial and talent gap between the clubs to inflict a chastening defeat on the Premier League giants. Bodo/Glimt, who hadn’t played since December after the end of the Norwegian season, reached the Europa League semi-finals last term, an impressive run that maintained their remarkable rise over the last decade. In their first ever season in the Champions League group phase, Bodo/Glimt had already earned creditable draws against Borussia Dortmund and Tottenham. City failed to heed the warning, playing with a lack of urgency in the face of Bodo/Glimt’s relentless pressing. They travelled to Norway earlier than Guardiola’s usual schedule to ensure his players were able to practise on Bodo/Glimt’s artificial pitch. Yet they were totally out of sync in the latest disjointed display in an increasingly troubled season. City are without a win in their last four Premier League matches, with Saturday’s 2-0 defeat at Manchester United leaving them seven points behind leaders Arsenal. Guardiola will be alarmed by City’s second successive tame surrender, which exposed the Spainard’s claim that his players had rediscovered their hunger after finishing without a trophy last season. The City boss had said he planned to enjoy the Northern Lights from his hotel before the match, but that will be his only fond memory from one of the most embarrassing losses of his glittering career. City’s final group phase fixture is at home to Galatasaray on January 28 as they try to seal an automatic place in the last 16 via a top-eight finish. Related Story Source link
A Chilean police officer stationed at the border collaborated on the scheme, enabling the crime.Were it not for border guards, public officials and other entities who…
US President Donald Trump has linked his drive to take control of Greenland to his failure to win the Nobel Peace Prize, saying he no longer thought “purely of Peace” as the row over the island threatened to reignite a trade war with Europe. Asked by NBC News in a brief telephone interview yesterday if he would use force to seize Greenland, Trump said “No comment,” adding he would “100%” follow through on plans to hit European nations with tariffs without a Greenland deal. Trump has intensified his push to wrest sovereignty over Greenland from fellow Nato member Denmark, prompting the European Union to weigh hitting back with its own measures. The dispute is threatening to upend the Nato alliance that has underpinned Western security for decades and which was already under strain over the war in Ukraine and Trump’s refusal to protect allies which do not spend enough on defence. Trump’s threat has rattled European industry and sent shockwaves through financial markets amid fears of a return to the volatility of 2025’s trade war, which only eased when the sides reached tariff deals in the middle of the year. In a text message on Sunday to Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere, Trump said: “Considering your country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America.” Norway’s government released the messages yesterday under the country’s freedom of information act. Stoere had sent an initial message on behalf of himself and Finnish President Alexander Stubb, calling for de-escalation of tensions and suggesting a call, eliciting a response from Trump less than half an hour later. The Norwegian Nobel Committee annoyed Trump by awarding the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize not to him but to Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado. In his message, Trump also repeated his accusation that Denmark cannot protect Greenland from Russia or China.“… And why do they have a ‘right of ownership’ anyway?” he wrote, adding: “The World is not secure unless we have Complete and Total Control of Greenland.” Trump vowed on Saturday to implement a wave of increasing tariffs from February 1 on EU members Denmark, Sweden, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Finland, along with Britain and Norway, until the US is allowed to buy Greenland, home to only 57,000 people. “We are living in 2026, you can trade with people, but you don’t trade people,” Denmark’s Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said during a visit to London yesterday.In a post on Facebook, Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said the territory should be allowed to decide its own fate. “We will not let ourselves be pressured. We stand firm on dialogue, on respect and on international law,” he said. Denmark’s military said planes carrying Danish soldiers and army commander Peter Boysen would land in Kangerlussuaq, western Greenland, describing it as a “substantial contribution” to the Arctic Endurance military exercise. Norway’s Stoere amended his schedule, announcing that he would attend the World Economic Forum in Davos tomorrow and Thursday, overlapping with Trump’s planned appearance at the annual gathering of the global political and business elite. Trump is expected to deliver a keynote address tomorrow in his first appearance at the conference in six years. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he too would try to meet Trump tomorrow, adding that a trade dispute was not wanted. “But if we are confronted with tariffs that we consider unreasonable, then we are capable of responding,” Merz said. Source link
One hundred days into the ceasefire, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) announced it has significantly expanded its life saving operations across the Gaza Strip, reaching more than one million people each month.The Programme stated that “while critical progress has been made in pushing back famine, the situation remains extremely fragile,” stressing “Border crossingsآ must stay open,آ volumes of food aid and commercial goodsآ must keep flowing, andآ the ceasefire must holdآ if we are to prevent Gaza from slipping back into the worst levels of hunger.” In Gaza, bakeriesآ continue to be a vital lifeline.آ By supporting bakeries, WFP provides food and jobs. Source link