A U.K.-based rights group is launching an interactive map documenting human rights abuses and violence against civilians since the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan nearly two years ago

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Tampa Bay Rays All-Star left fielder Randy Arozarena has announced he will participate in the 2023 Home Run Derby

By Chris Taylor NEW YORK No matter how successful you may be – even as a founder, president,

ORANGE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 16, 2023--

When word came through that Kylian Mbappe was available this summer, Manchester United were surprisingly quick to insist they weren’t interested. The Old Trafford club are actively looking for a forward and are one of very few clubs that could afford the 24-year-old’s fee and wages. It has been insisted to The Independent that the United hierarchy are similarly willing to make separate funds available for Harry Kane should he become buyable, so they would surely see the commercial logic in securing Mbappe. Instead, they have no current interest this summer and don’t see that changing. It was similar with Arsenal, especially as their budget isn’t as big as United’s. This is one of many contradictions to Mbappe’s career that has left both Paris Saint-Germain and the player’s camp considering a world-record offer from Al Hilal in the Saudi Pro League. It is difficult not to think it would be a waste; a needless squandering of a football great’s limited years in his physical prime, even if it is only for a season. This is not to besmirch the Saudi Pro League itself, before you even get to all of the other debates about how it is used politically by Mohammed Bin Salman. That is another warranted discussion in this, in how Mbappe himself would be politically used. This is not too much different from Qatar's ownership of PSG now. It is more that he would be outside Europe, outside the Champions League. The Saudi Pro League is aiming to be the second-best in the world after the Premier League, but it is clearly nowhere near there yet. It may have attracted a lot of headlines for its transfer business this summer, but it’s going to take a long time for that to translate into an actual audience. The legacy just isn’t there. The executives of one major broadcaster already confided this summer they would have no interest in paying for rights. The Saudi Pro League is still a football backwater, if a lucrative one. And yet it could well play host to a prime season for one of the greatest footballers who ever lived. If that currently feels like an exaggeration given Mbappe’s career so far, it is how he is looking at things, and it plays into this contradiction. While many footballers aren’t too bothered about the history of the sport, that isn’t the case with the 24-year-old. Mbappe is one of those obsessed with the lore of the game, and has consequently become obsessed with his own legacy within it. Those who know him say he was more anguished than most realised to lose the World Cup final in December, because that would have meant equalling Pele in winning his first two finals. This is how he sees his career. It is also why a move to Arsenal appeals, since he likes the idea of delivering such a great football institution to their first title in 20 years. The same outlook explains his ultimate ambition to become one of Real Madrid’s great names, alongside Alfredo Di Stefano and his boyhood idol Cristiano Ronaldo. He could instead play against the Portuguese for a season in Saudi Arabia, just when they were supposed to be going in opposite directions – and even if it is en route to Madrid. Ronaldo would not have even considered that at the same age. It could well end up ‘Mbappe: the lost year’, no matter what he wins. Many in football would say that already applies to his time at PSG, mind. The Qatari sportswashing project are so likely to win the French league every season that it isn’t really seen as a proper feat and barely has much of a global audience. It also means such a great player only features in about eight consequential fixtures a season. If even that. All of this as Erling Haaland has made himself a global megastar in the Premier League, scoring in front of a TV audience of hundreds of millions every week. Mbappe must surely envy that. In some ways, though, it isn’t a contradiction at all. That is for the same reason it just wouldn’t have been a consideration for Ronaldo. The game is very different than it was even in 2009. That point in its history was still the end period of an era where there was a remaining vitality to the European game. Clubs of genuine legacy and stature such as Lazio, Parma, Valencia and Borussia Dortmund would have at minimum been in the same financial sphere as one of the best players in the world, and at least offered him an option. It was only a decade before that point that Real Betis broke the world transfer record. This was a period where people could genuinely talk of the “big five” leagues. That description is now an irrelevance. The economic evolution of the game has meant it is now just the Premier League and a handful of other clubs in western Europe. They have just been buttressed by what is essentially a state competition in the Saudi Pro League, that in many cases offers a necessary financial counterbalance. This is the true cost of a Champions League that is itself becoming a closed shop and a Premier League that is becoming a Super League. This is what the global audience wants to see. And, without any checks or balances from football’s authorities, it could well mean not even getting to watch Mbappe for a prime season. A final contradiction is that the Saudi Pro League may further fall into this. For all the necessary sportswashing criticisms of the competition, the other side of it is that the country’s sporting authorities are legitimately trying to build a sustainable – if super-funded – league. They want it to become the next best league after the Premier League, and the plan was to go from great old names like Ronaldo to that next tier of good quality players like Ruben Neves in order to offer that substance. That has happened quickly but Mbappe would represent a drastic acceleration. Maybe too quickly. As excited as Al Hilal have been about the prospect of the signing in the weeks they have sounded it out, that isn’t quite shared within the rest of the Saudi Pro League. There is an argument it would look bad if he just departed for Madrid after a season, and that it would then leave a vacuum. The league would already be looking to constantly catch up with one season it had. And what a season it might be for Mbappe, even if one argument within his camp that these years will mean his career will be able to go on for longer. It is not like he has been suffering the physical rigours of the Premier League in his early twenties. It may all play into him becoming a Real Madrid legend, in exactly the way he wants. It might just play into something bigger too. Read More Kylian Mbappe’s Al Hilal transfer could spark chain reaction affecting every top club in Europe World-record bid made for Kylian Mbappe as PSG exit looms PSG attempting to hijack Bayern Munich’s bid to sign Harry Kane Erik ten Hag says Manchester United are making progress in striker search Premier League chief ‘not too concerned at moment’ about Saudi Arabia rise Football rumours: Premier League clubs scramble for Kylian Mbappe

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A Taylor Swift fan tragically passed away before the pop star's concert in Brazil last night due to the heat in the venue. 23-year-old Ana Benevides passed away before the concert, believed to be caused by dehydration and heat exhaustion - although this has not been confirmed. Swift put a statement on her Instagram story about the loss. "I can't believe I'm writing these words but it is with a shattered heart that I say we lost a fan earlier tonight before my show. I can't even tell you how devastated I am by this. There's very little information I have other than the fact that she was so incredibly beautiful and far too young," Swift wrote. "I'm not going to be able to speak about this from stage because I feel overwhelmed by grief when I even try to talk about it. I want to say now I feel this loss deeply and my broken heart goes out to her family and friends. This is the last thing I ever thought would happen when we decided to bring this tour to Brazil." Attendees of the concert revealed that they were not allowed to bring water bottles inside and the venue did little to provide water and other safety measures once people had entered the venue. Fan Monica Bertha shared a video she had taken at the concert where Swift is seen checking on fans to make sure they're receiving water. "It's very hot so if somebody says they need water when it's this hot they really need it," Swift can be seen saying to the crowd. @mobertha Queen Tay stopping the concert to make sure fans get water? #taylorswift #erastour #riodejaneiro #rioerastour Another clip has also gone viral showing Swift herself picking up water bottles mid-performance and throwing them into the crowd. The venue - Estádio Olímpico Nilton Santos - is facing calls to allow fans to bring in water to stop something like this ever happening again. Indy100 have reached out to Estádio Olímpico Nilton Santos for comment. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings. How to join the indy100's free WhatsApp channel