List of All Articles with Tag 'b'

BEN GURION AIRPORT, Israel (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden arrived in Israel on Wednesday, beginning a visit to show solidarity

In the celebratory aftermath of England’s qualification for Euro 2024, Jude Bellingham was in little mood to qualify his opinion. The Real Madrid midfielder just went out and said how Gareth Southgate’s side deserved the win over Italy because they were the “much better” team. There was no diplomacy there, just a striking stridency. It created a very different mood to the last time a match between the two teams led to a tournament qualification, amid scenes that received a new prominence recently due to the David Beckham documentary. That was the 1997 0-0 draw in Rome, which saw England qualify automatically for the 1998 World Cup. The suffocating tension of that match bore so little resemblance to the stroll of Tuesday’s game, at least for Gareth Southgate’s side. Then, Christian Vieri’s late header caused audible gasps within the Stadio Olimpico, no doubt to match those around the country. The ball went just wide, though, to bring huge emotional release and Paul Gascoigne dancing. The sense of achievement was profound. It was admittedly a different football and a very different Italy, with some of the intensity influenced by England’s failure to reach USA 94, but it was still just qualification - and that for a newly expanded 32-team event. It was also a hugely talented squad, filled by some of the most relentless winners the English game has known in so many of Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United stars. And yet this England now has something more, as well as much more than just the expectation of qualification. It is more than the experience of reaching the latter stages of tournaments and so many other psychological milestones like beating Italy away. It is that assuredness, personified by Bellingham. There is something genuinely different in the midfielder, a potential missing ingredient for a team that last came within a penalty shoot-out of victory in this very competition. It is personality as much as performance. It points to an England that can be defined by “winners” at international level, that is able to rise to any given day because they are completely devoid of all the old baggage. This is something that Bellingham’s very youth represents, as well as his admirable willingness to just go straight to Real Madrid rather than feel he has to go to the Premier League. It’s similarly difficult not to think that the mood that fosters also fortifies the confidence of other players with England. That was maybe most visible in Marcus Rashford’s finish, as well as a level of display we haven’t seen so much with his club of late. None of this is to say it’s all down to Bellingham, of course. It’s rather what his mindset represents and rounds off. “He has been a catalyst,” Southgate said after the 3-1 win. “The way he carries himself and plays on the field and shows that, and he has had that since he walked through the door. Plus the power in his play, that gives us something when you are in tight situations and he can suddenly wriggle out of things… That belief, that willingness to engage with the crowd, they are rare traits in a player so young.” They are especially rare in historic England squads, right up to the recent successes. Southgate has navigated his sides through all that from fine man-management of a brilliant generation, where the Football Association have essentially become the latest wealthy western European football nation to industrialise talent production. Bellingham is the sort of player that eventually comes out of that, a final product if you like, but one that often requires a lot of patience. Putting all the pieces in place just gives you the best chance, rather than giving you a certainty of having the best player. These are of course the terms that are already framing the discussion around Bellingham. That isn’t English media exaggeration, either. It was the first question put to Southgate by Italian media. It dominated the late-night football discussion in Spain. The world is talking about Bellingham. It might yet see England dominate these Euros, in the same way they did to Italy to get there. Read More Jude Bellingham once again proves he is the key for England’s Euro 2024 hopes England have qualified for Euro 2024 — now it’s about winning it Gareth Southgate savours win and says England are ‘capable of winning’ Euro 2024 Jude Bellingham once again proves he is the key for England’s Euro 2024 hopes England have qualified for Euro 2024 — now it’s about winning it

Millie Bobby Brown has admitted she often cries over Instagram beauty pictures because she fears she will never look as perfect as the people she sees online

The US president lands in Israel as Gaza reels from a hospital blast feared to have killed hundreds.

By Laurie Chen and Yew Lun Tian BEIJING (Reuters) -Chinese President Xi Jinping warned against decoupling from China as he

The pop star was in her late teens and dating Justin Timberlake at the time, according to memoir extracts.

Britney Spears shot to fame as the quintessential sugar-pop princess but, in 2003, she showed her serious side with the moving hit ‘Everytime’. And now, the track has acquired a whole new meaning in the light of revelations made in her upcoming memoir ‘The Woman in Me’. In the autobiography, Spears, 41, claims that she fell pregnant during her three-year relationship with fellow superstar Justin Timberlake. And while she’d been convinced that she and the NSYNC heartthrob would have children together “one day”, she said he “definitely wasn’t happy” about the news. The singer wrote in an excerpt published by People on Tuesday: “I loved Justin so much. I always expected us to have a family together one day. This would just be much earlier than I’d anticipated. “But Justin definitely wasn’t happy about the pregnancy. He said we weren’t ready to have a baby in our lives, that we were way too young.” She went on: “I’m sure people will hate me for this, but I agreed not to have the baby. I don’t know if that was the right decision. If it had been left up to me alone, I never would have done it. “And yet Justin was so sure that he didn’t want to be a father.” Spears then revealed that she had an abortion in late 2000 when she was just 18 or 19 years old, and said the procedure was “one of the most agonizing things” she had ever experienced. Inevitably, the deeply personal disclosure soon dominated social media, with fans convinced that ‘Everytime’ was, in fact, a tribute to her lost, unborn child. They swiftly scanned the music video and performances for clues – and the evidence seems pretty convincing. In the end, the ‘Baby One More Time’ star went on to have two sons — Sean Preston, who is now 18, and Jayden James, who is 17 – with her ex-husband Kevin Federline. Meanwhile, Timberlake also has two sons – Silas, 8, and Phineas, 3 – with his wife Jessica Biel. The ‘Cry me a River’ idol had apparently been “concerned” about what Spears was going to write about him in her book, which will be released on 224 October. “It’s eating at him,” one insider told Page Six. Maybe now, to quote ‘Everytime’, it will haunt him, too. Sign up for 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.

'The Bikeriders' is now without a release date amid the continued Hollywood actors' strike.

After last year’s televised ceremony yielded the lowest-ever ratings for the awards presentation, Oscars bosses have announced Raj Kapoor as executive producer and showrunner of the 2024 Academy Awards show.

By David Milliken and Andy Bruce LONDON (Reuters) -British consumer price inflation (CPI) held at an 18-month low of 6.7%

With nearly all votes counted, President George Weah and his Joseph Boakai are running neck and neck.

Stocks in Asia slipped as uncertainties lingered in the Middle East and markets digested the possibility of further