
EU grapples with its African army training dilemma as another coup rocks the continent
The European Union is growing increasingly concerned about “domino effects” as yet another military coup rocks Africa
2023-09-01 00:53

Friends of missing Katy Perry songwriter Camela Leierth-Segura fear someone is holding her captive
A songwriter and model who co-wrote one of Katy Perry’s hit songs has mysteriously vanished and her loved ones fear someone is holding her captive. Swedish-born Camela Leierth-Segura, 48, was last seen in the Beverly Hills area back on 29 June, according to the California Department of Justice’s missing persons page. Her longtime friend Cecilia Foss told The Independent that it’s not like her to just vanish without a trace and the fact that her beloved 19-year-old cat Morris is also missing has made it even more of a mystery. “My worst fear is that someone has her, and is hurting her,” Ms Foss said, adding that Ms Leierth-Segura is not someone who would just disappear for seven weeks without responding to anyone. “If she was going for a drive to clear her head, I get it,” Ms Foss said. “But it’s been seven weeks. And no one has heard from her. Nobody goes for a seven-week drive.” Ms Leierth-Segura had already been missing for several weeks before her friends and family put the pieces together. “She was always so busy with projects but when 10, 20, 50 of us discovered none of us had heard from her, we got really worried,” Foss said. She said their friend Liz Montgomery called for a welfare check and Beverly Hills police responded to her apartment where the landlord informed them she had been evicted. Neighbours have told local news they hadn’t seen her in weeks, pointing out that the usually well-tended plants on her balcony are now dead. Ms Montgomery filed a missing person report and has been in contact with her family. Beverly Hills Police have alerts out for Camela, her black cat Morris and her car. It’s not known if the cat is with Camela. Ms Foss and their friend Liz Montgomery are in close contact with Camela’s family in Sweden. “They are devastated and overwhelmed,” Ms Foss said. “With them there and Camela here, I think it’s just very hard for her family to even comprehend that she is missing.” Ms Leierth-Segura’s last text message was sent on 29 June, and her Ford Fusion car was last seen on police cameras leaving Beverly Hills the following afternoon, 30 June. But it’s not clear who was driving the vehicle. “She had mentioned it to all of us that she was having trouble; Covid definitely was not helpful for her because she’s a musician, model, actress, all that stuff,” Ms Montgomery told The Los Angeles Times. “And there was no money coming in.” It is not clear when exactly she was evicted or where she was staying afterwards. In an Instagram post, Ms Montgomery also urged for help in tracking down the missing woman. “This is a personal friend of mine. A best friend. People are asking so, YES! PLEASE SHARE - HELP NEEDED! My dear friend of over 25 years is missing. LAST SEEN IN BEVERLY HILLS ON JUNE 29,2023,” she wrote. “We are extremely worried about her safety, and despite our best efforts, the local authorities have not been able to locate her. If you have any information, even the smallest detail can help, please reach out immediately.” She added: “She means the world to us and time is of the essence. Her family in Sweden is pleading for your assistance. PLEASE spread the word, SHARE this post, and help us bring Camela home safely. Thank you for your support and assistance in this critical matter.” “I’d like to think that nothing bad happened, but do I think something bad happened? Yeah,” she said. A GoFundMe has been created by her sister Lisa and loved ones are hoping money will help bring in information to find her. Read More Maryland police to announce ‘potential suspect’ in Rachel Morin murder investigation Camela Leierth-Segura – update: Search for missing Katy Perry songwriter after mysterious disappearance Musician who wrote Katy Perry hit song mysteriously vanishes from Beverly Hills
2023-08-18 05:21

White House holds first-ever summit on the ransomware crisis plaguing the nation's public schools
The White House held its first-ever cybersecurity “summit” on the ransomware attacks plaguing U.S. schools
2023-08-09 01:22

Spanish football’s ‘me-too moment’ is a mirror for the entire game
Right up until the moment that Luis Rubiales took the microphone at the Spanish federation on Friday afternoon, senior figures in Uefa were adamant he would resign. The expectation had even stopped some prominent football officials publicly speaking out. What followed, even for a sport like this, left many involved “speechless”. It says more than any statement, mind, that Rubiales’ “jaw-dropping political speech” – to use the words of one shocked source – probably wasn’t the most consequential moment of the day. All of this will eventually lead to real action, way beyond words or Spanish football. In terms of the most immediate effect, Fifa has now suspended Rubiales for 90 days and ordered him not to contact the player he kissed on the lips after the World Cup final, Jenni Hermoso. One of the most striking and important lines of Fifa’s statement announcing Rubiales’ suspension was the directive that he is not allowed contact her or her “close environment”. Four official complaints against Rubiales are now being investigated and they could ultimately see him banned from sport for anything between two to 15 years. “This is the end,” Miquel Iceta, Spain’s minister for culture and sport, told El Pais. “This can’t continue like this.” And yet it went on a bit longer. Iceta's comments were before the farcical late-night statement outlining how Rubiales’ federation would take legal action against the Futpro Union representing Jenni Hermoso, the player he kissed after the World Cup final, while insisting the president “has not lied” through the use of still images in an attempt to show Hermoso had initiated the incident. It felt like a point of no return, if only the latest. That deepens the question over why Rubiales didn’t just resign, although many would point to a total income from the role and connected positions of almost €1m a year. Others would point to a belligerent defiance when “cornered” that sums up his personality. It has similarly led to open comment in Spanish football about how this could be a precursor to a political career. Rubiales’ statements blaming “false feminism” undeniably played into the culture-war sentiment that Spain’s far-right party Vox has long been trying to court. This is what has finally set Rubiales in open conflict with the Spanish squad, after what has really been months of build-up. It has also brought the most significant and symbolic effect. The Spanish squad admirably came together as one, creditably supported by many of their colleagues around the women’s game as well as Spanish clubs and some male footballers, to declare they would not play for the national team while “the current management” remains at the federation. It has been quite a move – and almost the grim inverse of one of midfielder Aitana Bonmati’s supreme turns – for the country’s senior football body to turn the glory of a World Cup win into such a global public relations disaster, which is just about the most generous description. The women’s world champions currently don’t have a team. Going up against your now hugely popular winners is quite the position. The front page of Marca declared it all a “global embarrassment”, which echoes the mood of most of Spain. There are multiple other layers to this, a landmark moment for football as a whole. One of the main arguments has been what a rightful shame it is that the players’ glory has only seen a man’s behaviour being discussed, and that this man is who represents Spanish football on the global stage. It is in some ways both a separate story, though, and one more deeply fundamental to the squad’s achievements. Some of those achievements, of course, are successfully demanding better standards for women’s football that ultimately served their World Cup win. This is where there is a wider context to “little more than a kiss”, as Rubiales so provocatively put it. Even after Spain’s semi-final victory over Sweden, the federation chief was the first figure from the Spanish camp to publicly mention the player mutiny that framed this campaign, talking about “people with resentments” with a similarly provocative tone. It was impossible not to interpret all of this in terms of his own sense of personal vindication for standing by Jorge Vilda and facing down rebellious players, all of which translated into this belligerent triumphalism in the moment of victory. What else does the infamous crotch-grabbing symbolise other than “I’m the man”? And yet it is that very triumphalism that could lead to his downfall, “the end”, as Iceta put it. Those very celebrations have now led to a situation where Hermoso has now said: “I want to make clear that not in any moment did the conversation occur that Mr Luis Rubiales references, and much less that his kiss was consensual. In the same way I want to reiterate how I did in that moment that what happened was not enjoyable. “I felt vulnerable and a victim of aggression, an impulsive act, sexist, out of place and without any type of consent from my part. In short, I wasn’t respected.” Hermoso then spoke about how she, her family, friends and teammates “have been under constant pressure to come out with some sort of statement that would justify the acts of Mr Luis Rubiales”. While Victor Francos, the president of the Spanish High Council for Sport, had echoed the mood of many involved by saying nobody should “put the responsibility for this” on Hermoso, there was still a widespread pride in how she spoke. This is the other side of the shame Spain is feeling at how its football culture looks on the world stage. As regressive as much of the powerbrokers appear, the women’s teams have been pioneers. Spain can be proud of them for much more than winning a World Cup. They are affecting real change. Similarly, a lot of the country has looked at this and decided which side they are on. It is not that of Rubiales or Vilda. An admirable statement from Osasuna spoke of how the applause in the room “represents how far away Mr Rubiales and those who support him are from the majority sentiment of society”. On that, if Vilda’s managerial relationship with the players was complex before, what will it be like after effusively clapping Rubiales after his speech? All of this is why this entire story has had real cut-through, to the extent it has surprised many in Spain. Francos said: “We’re facing the ‘me too’ moment of Spanish football”. It also touches on bigger themes in global football. That is of course if global football snaps out of this apparent paralysis – although the paralysis is part of the point. The silence from some of the most senior people in football has been alarming. Uefa still have no official position on their vice president, although the explanation from those within the organisation is that Rubiales is only there because of a vote from the national federations, that they don’t want to interfere with a member association, and that do they want to cut across Fifa when the global body has opened a case. “The optics are bad if they say nothing,” one source conceded. It sums up the mood of many football figures, who all echoed a description of Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin as “such a disappointment”. Nor has there been any public comment from the Football Association, even though chair Debbie Hewitt was right beside Rubiales in her new role as Fifa president as all of this was happening. Another explanation there is the expectation he would resign and that Hewitt is now likely to be a witness in Fifa’s investigation. There has then been the widespread silence from the men’s game, other than admirable exceptions like Borja Iglesias, Isco, Hector Bellerin and Javier Aguirre. The contrast has already been drawn with how activist women’s players are by contrast, with one agent privately confiding that most male footballers only ever take on a cause if it suits their public relations purposes. “It’s a low bar but how many current men’s players ever talk up?” This is in part why this story has gone well beyond Spain. Football faces a crisis of leadership and vision, that has directly facilitated many existential threats to the sport itself, at least as regards the positive community form we know it from most of its history. Rubiales really reflects a type of man – and it is always a man – that rises to senior administrative roles in football, and doesn't seem to have the foresight, let alone other qualities, to properly serve the game as a whole. It is another vintage example of the sport mirroring society in terms of patriarchal structure, of course, but what is so troubling is how its community values could still be so positive. As the most prominent examples, what has been the response to sportswashing? What has been the response to the corrosive influence of private equity and other forms of a very Western capitalism? What has been the response to multi-club projects and how they distort club identities? What has been the response to the problematic concentration of the vast majority of football’s wealth in the men’s game in western Europe? What has been the response to the destructive erosion of competitive balance? Bar mostly waving all of this through, the most common response has just been to add more games and competitions, so even more money swirls around the top end. It has lamentably become a sport that is only ever exploiting its own immense popularity, rather than using it for the good it could do. And yet that’s the other side of such popularity, and when something spreads among more people like that. Those in charge can lose control of it. The development of the women’s game has led to that more prominent activism previously missing. This multi-layered story may well end up the most emphatic proof of that. It may end up a victory that goes further than the World Cup itself. Read More Spanish FA threatens legal action over Jenni Hermoso ‘lies’ as World Cup kiss row deepens Spain’s World Cup winners refuse to play until Luis Rubiales is removed
2023-08-26 21:45

'Woman's body is powerful': Influencer Tammy Hembrow reveals postpartum loose skin in social media post
'After having children I'm absolutely convinced a woman's body is the most powerful/beautiful thing on this earth,' Tammy wrote in her caption
2023-05-22 13:46

Artist Françoise Gilot, acclaimed painter who loved and later left Picasso, is dead at 101
Françoise Gilot, a prolific painter who was nonetheless more famous for her turbulent relationship with Pablo Picasso — and for leaving him — died on Tuesday in Manhattan
2023-06-07 07:45

Kenny McLean nets late winner as Scotland edge qualifying comeback in Norway
Kenny McLean scored a dramatic 89th-minute winner for Scotland in Norway as the visitors turned their Euro 2024 qualifier on its head with two goals in as many minutes. Scotland were trailing to Erling Haaland’s 61st-minute penalty and had barely posed a threat before Lyndon Dykes capitalised on some hesitancy in the Norwegian defence to nudge the ball home after John McGinn’s attempted through ball had been intercepted. The Group A leaders soon ensured they continued their perfect start to the campaign when Dykes laid McGinn’s pass back to substitute McLean, who curled a low shot just inside the far post. The visitors wore black armbands in memory of Gordon McQueen, who scored his fifth and final international goal in a 4-0 win in the same stadium in 1979 on the previous occasion the teams met in a European Championship qualifier. And they provided a fitting tribute to the 30-times capped centre-back with a sensational comeback victory. Jack Hendry was handed possibly the most difficult task in world football at the moment when he was drafted in to play at the heart of a back three tasked with stopping Haaland. The Club Brugge defender was the only change to the team that beat Spain in March after Grant Hanley dropped out with a serious Achilles injury. The best chance of the first half fell to Norway forward Alexander Sorloth, who sent a free header from eight yards straight at Angus Gunn. Scotland struggled to retain possession in the opening 20 minutes before settling down somewhat. Andy Robertson produced two good runs and crosses but they did not lead to anything and McGinn was closed down quickly after getting a sight of goal following Ryan Christie’s cross. Steve Clarke’s side were employing a flat back five out of possession and trying to keep a high line. The only time Haaland got the ball in a decent position in the first half, Callum McGregor quickly tracked back to make a penalty-box tackle. The striker might have had a far better chance if he had not been hauled down by Hendry while beginning a chase for a ball over the top. Hendry was the last defender but only received a yellow card given the foul was on the halfway line. The Slovenian referee was a lot harsher in handing bookings to McGinn and Kieran Tierney either side of half-time. Ola Solbakken and McGinn saw decent long-range shots saved early in the second half before Hendry got away with some penalty-box grappling with Haaland, although the striker did not appeal unlike some of his team-mates. However, he did not have long to wait for a spot-kick. Ryan Porteous grabbed the striker’s shirt as he looked set to attack Sorloth’s cross and the referee immediately pointed to the spot when Haaland went down. Porteous in return received a yellow card which rules him out of Tuesday’s visit of Georgia. Gunn dived the right way and came close but was beaten by the power of the strike from Haaland, who had only scored once in his previous eight club matches but took his tally for the season for club and country to 59. Scotland soon lost Tierney to injury with Liam Cooper entering the fray and they were making no inroads into Norway’s lead before Clarke made a triple switch in the 79th minute and moved to a back four. McLean, Stuart Armstrong and Billy Gilmour came on. Haaland went off in the 84th minute and Scotland soon stunned the hosts and delighted their travelling fans with their late double whammy. Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Andy Murray reaches back-to-back finals after beating Nuno Borges in Nottingham Jodie Burrage sets up all-British final with Katie Boulter in Nottingham Remco Evenepoel pays tribute to Gino Mader during Tour de Suisse stage win
2023-06-18 02:23

Supermoon could team up with Hurricane Idalia to raise tides higher just as the storm makes landfall
A rare blue supermoon could be playing a role in worsening the impact of Hurricane Idalia as the storm lashes Florida's west coast
2023-08-31 00:20

Florida man driving ‘Google Street View’ car is arrested after leading police on 100 mph chase on July 31
After Middletown PD posted about Florida man Coleman Ferguson's arrest, one social media user commented sarcastically, 'Google will be proud'
2023-08-05 19:51

Fernandes demands apology for Man Utd penalty call at Spurs
Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes said his side deserve an apology after not being awarded a penalty early on in...
2023-08-20 22:48

US attorney's office files legal motion to block a Titanic expedition planned for 2024
The US government has filed a motion to stop a Titanic expedition planned for 2024, citing a law that protects and preserves the shipwreck as a gravesite.
2023-09-01 06:23

Biden celebrates Juneteenth, the newest federal holiday, at the White House
President Joe Biden hosted a massive concert on the South Lawn of the White House to commemorate Juneteenth, the country’s newest federal holiday which the president said will “breathe a new life in the very essence of America.”
2023-06-14 09:51
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