
In Colombian jungle, digging up the Americas' colonial past
With brushes and trowels, Indigenous Colombians are unearthing traces in the jungle of a tragic period in history, when their ancestors were violently...
2023-10-11 09:45

Grindr employees are unionizing
Workers at Grindr, the queer hookup app that declares itself "the world's largest dating app"
2023-07-25 21:56

Oil Edges Higher With Focus on Israel-Hamas War, Shaky Demand
Oil advanced after slumping in the first two days of the week, as a still-contained Israel-Hamas war caused
2023-11-01 10:19

Arrest made in connection with fatal Baltimore block party shooting
A 17-year-old has been arrested in connection with the Baltimore block party shooting over the weekend that claimed two lives.
2023-07-08 00:18

Brighton’s new midfield gem Carlos Baleba stays calm in the chaos of Liverpool draw
Carlos Baleba finished his first Premier League start in tatters. The 19-year-old had given everything to Brighton’s cause, and in the final minutes, he could be seen bent double, gasping for breath, telling his goalkeeper to keep hold of the ball for a few seconds longer, like a man begging for mercy. By this point, he looked a little disheveled, with his socks fallen down and shorts rolled up. His final act was to chop down Liverpool’s galloping Ryan Gravenberch, for which he was rightly booked. And when the whistle blew on this wild 2-2 draw, he dropped to the grass in relief and stretched out the cramp coursing through his legs. Baleba hobbled over to shake the hands of various Liverpool players, most of whom wouldn’t have known anything about this Cameroonian teenager before their team meeting on Friday. But after a performance full of energy, guile, skill, outrageous confidence and physical dominance in midfield – one that sapped his body dry – they do now. Ask people inside Brighton who will be the next diamond in the rough, the player who will be sold for five times their asking price after doing wondrous things on this Amex Stadium pitch, then you might be pointed to Kaoru Mitoma or Evan Ferguson, Mahmoud Dahoud or Joao Pedro. But those really in the know will point to Baleba. That includes the manager, Roberto De Zerbi, who said without hesitation on Baleba’s signing this summer: “He will be the future of the club.” If that sounded like hyperbole, there was enough evidence in this 100-minute sample to suggest the Italian is right, as he has tended to be about most things in his short Brighton career. After a Carabao Cup start and a couple of league appearances off the bench, De Zerbi showed enormous faith in Baleba with this full Premier League debut against Liverpool, and that faith was repaid in spades. This was Baleba’s kind of match, stretched and full of holes, with little fires popping up all over the pitch that needed putting out. As the defensive shield, he rushed to cover off counter-attacks and snuff out threatening direct balls. He stood in front of his back four checking over his shoulder for Mohamed Salah’s movement, and then cut out the through ball when it came. When Lewis Dunk pressed so high up the pitch that he left a void in Brighton’s defence, Baleba instinctively slotted back and filled the space. In possession, he was calm and composed and occasionally he injected little jolts of energy, like early in the first half, in his own half, where he threw in a stepover before charging away from Liverpool’s midfield and setting Brighton’s attacking players away as the crowd urged him on. Or a few minutes after Brighton had scored their first goal, when he dribbled through the centre of the pitch from the halfway line, jinked away from a defender on the edge of Liverpool’s box and hit his shot just wide. Baleba was a source of calm in what was a wild game. The first half could have been the subject of an art installation simply titled: ‘Get rid’. All three goals were the result of kamikaze passing at the back that went disastrously wrong, enough to boil the blood of proper football men everywhere. First, it was Virgil van Dijk plodding a pass to Alexis Mac Allister, which Brighton’s Simon Adingra (like Baleba, the 21-year-old winger was exceptional) stole and quickly swept past an out-of-position Alisson Becker for Brighton’s opener. Liverpool hit back with two goals of their own, first when Dunk misplaced a pass and Salah finished off a flowing counterattack, and then just before the break when Pascal Gross lost the ball in his own box and hauled down Dominik Szoboszlai, and Salah scored from the penalty spot. Brighton went into the break 2-1 up, so it was a compliment to the Baleba-Gross partnership when Jurgen Klopp brought on Ryan Gravenberch at half-time to stabilise Liverpool’s overrun midfield. It worked, and for a period Liverpool took control, but they failed to score a third and Brighton went hunting for an equaliser, which came late through Dunk’s close-range volley. Baleba never stopped, and his defensive nous regularly kept counter-attacks at bay. “I have to congratulate the club on finding two more amazing players, in Adingra and Baleba,” De Zerbi said after the game. “Baleba is very young and I think this club needs the characteristics of Baleba. He is a great replacement for Caicedo. But we can’t forget Ansu Fati, Mahmoud Dahoud, Joao Pedro.” In other words, there is plenty more where that came from. Why give Baleba his first start now? “I gave him the right steps. He played a part of the game with Bournemouth, played 70 minutes in Stamford Bridge [in the League Cup] in a big stadium. I gave him time to understand the new style of play, the timing of when to receive the ball, the right line of passing: our idea. It is not so easy [to learn] because our style, in the defensive phase we can change depending on the opponent, our build-up play can change. “He’s very young, a very good player with incredible potential, and he can be one of the most important midfielders in Europe in the future.” De Zerbi believes. And after this performance, we’re all Balebas now. Read More Brighton v Liverpool LIVE: Premier League result and reaction Liverpool’s new double-act are surprising even Jurgen Klopp Rumours: Brazilian is Liverpool’s January target and City want Haaland renewal No need for a replay as Liverpool return to normality in Europa League Liverpool vs Union Saint-Gilloise LIVE: Latest Europa League updates PGMOL rejects Ben Foster’s claim that refs pressured Sky into VAR cover-up
2023-10-09 01:26

Dollarama raises annual sales forecast as demand thrives
Dollarama raised annual sales forecast on Wednesday, banking on strong demand for its discounted groceries and essentials as
2023-09-13 19:19

Thailand Keeps Key Rate Steady at a Decade High as Growth Ebbs
Thailand kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged for the first time in 17 months as policymakers assess the
2023-11-29 15:17

Barrels of drinking water for migrants walking through Texas have disappeared
As the heat rises in Texas, law enforcement is working to untangle a mystery involving the disappearance of a life-saving measure for migrants traveling through an arid region
2023-08-12 13:26

AI startup SambaNova launches new chip designed for higher quality AI
By Max A. Cherney Artificial intelligence chip startup SambaNova Systems announced a new semiconductor on Tuesday, designed to
2023-09-20 05:21

Logan Paul trolls Dillon Danis for stuttering during their DAZN face-off: 'Give this man a glass of water'
Logan Paul made fun of Dillon Danis as appeared to have trouble with his words during the DAZN face off
2023-09-10 15:49

Kylian Mbappe to be barred from training with PSG first team
Kylian Mbappe will be barred from training with Paris St Germain’s main first-team group as his contract dispute with the club continues, the PA news agency understands. PSG return to their training base on Monday following their pre-season tour of Japan and South Korea, but Mbappe will be part of the so-called ‘loft’ training group rather than the first team as his stand-off with the club drags on. PSG sources remain convinced the player, who is out of contract next summer, has already agreed a free transfer deal with Real Madrid. Mbappe’s management are understood to have refused to engage with an offer from the club to sign a new contract containing a guaranteed sale clause, which would allow him to join another club for a fee next summer. From PSG’s perspective, there is no reason why he would turn down the offer, because it gives him the opportunity to leave when he wants and join the club he wants. PSG had given Al Hilal permission to speak to the player after they tabled a world record bid of £259million last month, but Mbappe reportedly refused to even meet with delegates from the Saudi club who had flown to Paris. Chelsea and Barcelona are understood to be two of the clubs trying to work out a player-plus-cash deal for Mbappe, who was part of France’s World Cup-winning squad in 2018 and also one of the stars of the last tournament in Qatar. PSG kick off their 2023/24 Ligue 1 campaign at home to Lorient on Saturday.
2023-08-07 05:19

'Positions not matching yet' as EU leaders fight for slice of budget pie
By Gabriela Baczynska and Jan Strupczewski BRUSSELS From supporting Ukraine to boosting military might and managing migration, European
2023-10-27 00:26
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