Sunday, 8 August 2021

U.S. Overwhelms Spain for Third Straight Water Polo Gold Medal

TOKYO — Maddie Musselman held her phone out, and the U.S. women’s water polo team gathered for a picture on the top step of the podium.

It was a familiar scene. The dynasty is alive and well.

Musselman scored three times, Ashleigh Johnson made 11 saves and the U.S. won its third consecutive gold medal on Saturday, routing Spain 14-5 in the final at the Tokyo Olympics.

“We’re having fun out there, and I think you could see that today,” Musselman said. “Everyone brought their best when their best was needed.”

Aria Fischer, Kaleigh Gilchrist and Alys Williams had two goals apiece as the U.S. improved to 134-4 since it won gold at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games. It broke its own records for most goals and biggest margin in the final.
[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

Maggie Steffens and Melissa Seidemann became the first women to win three gold medals in water polo. Musselman was named MVP, and Johnson was selected as the top goalkeeper of the tournament.

The day belonged to the U.S. — again.

“In the moments where you want to be at your best, it’s like it’s just magic when it happens,” Johnson said. “But … we’re putting in the work every day.”

After falling 10-9 to Hungary in group play in its first loss at the Olympics since the 2008 final, the U.S. ripped off four straight wins by a combined score of 63-26.

“I think this team loves competition, so we want the hardest games and the hardest moments,” Gilchrist said.

The U.S. joins the men’s teams from Britain (1908-1920) and Hungary (2000-2008) as the only countries to win at least three straight water polo titles at the Olympics. It is the only team to medal in each of the six women’s tournaments at the Games.

Maica Garcia had two goals for Spain, which has lost 13 in a row against the U.S., including the finals of the 2017 and 2019 world championships. The silver medal matches the country’s best finish in the women’s competition.

“We gave it all. That’s all we could do,” said Roser Tarrago, fighting back tears.

Garcia, Tarrago, Anni Espar, Laura Ester, Pili Pena and Marta Bach also were on Spain’s roster when it lost to the United States in the final at the 2012 Olympics, and they looked primed for revenge in Tokyo. The reigning European champions had won five of six, outlasting Hungary in the semifinals.

Instead, Spain was pushed aside by the U.S. once again.

“Destroyed. I really wanted this gold and I can only say congratulations to the USA,” Espar said. “They played an amazing game.”

Steffens and company saved their best for last — like they often do. The Americans were shaken by their loss to Hungary, but they regrouped with their depth and defense.

Six U.S. players scored on the way to a 7-4 halftime lead. Spain didn’t get its first goal until there was 2:15 left in the first quarter.

When the U.S. ripped off five straight goals in the third, it was all over. Johnson took a seat on the bench with 2:35 left, and the party was on.

“We’ve talked a lot about the fine line between confidence and complacency, but we’ve done just a fantastic job of just staying focused through this process,” coach Adam Krikorian said, “and it’s amazing.”

When it was over, Johnson and Krikorian embraced, and Krikorian eventually was dumped into the pool by Gilchrist for a quick swim.

“It wasn’t just one player. It wasn’t two players,” Steffens said. “You look up on there and we had different people getting blocks, different people getting huge goals here, different people guarding and to see such a full team at the end of this just makes me feel really proud to be a part of it.”

Hungary earned the country’s first medal in women’s water polo, beating the Russian team 11-9 for bronze.

Captain Rita Kesthelyi had two goals for Hungary, which finished fourth in each of the past three Games.

Kesthelyi’s father, Tibor, played water polo for Hungary in the 1988 Olympics, and she said her mother was among the first women to play the sport in her country. Rita Kesthelyi fought back tears when asked about the significance of the bronze medal.

“I’m sure everyone is very, very proud of us and happy that we achieve this,” she said. “It’s a huge step in our history.”

___

Jay Cohen can be reached at https://twitter.com/jcohenap

___

More AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2020-tokyo-olympics and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports



from RSSMix.com Mix ID 13001087 https://ift.tt/2U66qE0

A Florida radio host who railed against Dr. Fauci and vaccines has died from COVID-19



from RSSMix.com Mix ID 13001087 https://ift.tt/3Cu2X3a

This Was No Team USA Men’s Basketball Dream Team. But In Tokyo, It Demands Our Respect

It was no thing of overwhelming beauty, the Team USA men’s Olympic basketball team’s 87-82 win over France in the gold medal game on Saturday in Saitama, north of Tokyo. This was no Dream Team or Redeem Team or any other collection of superstars who will be wistfully remembered in books or documentaries three decades from now.

They didn’t have to be. At an Olympics that at times have felt like more of an obligation than a celebration, the U.S. men’s basketball team met the moment. They did what they had to do. They got it done.
[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

So they deserve our everlasting respect.

Kevin Durant, America’s all-time Olympic scorer, scored 29 points on 9-18 shooting, and Jrue Holiday of the Milwaukee Bucks, the newly-minted NBA champion who along with Bucks teammate Khris Middleton and fellow NBA Finals participant Devin Booker of the Phoenix Suns landed in Tokyo at 1 a.m. the morning their first Olympic game, set a defensive tone that was key to the U.S. victory over France, which beat the U.S in the Olympic opener for both teams. After that loss, and demoralizing pre-Games exhibition losses to Nigeria and Australia that caused some panic in basketball circles, the Americans defended their gold, again: following a bronze medal finish at the 2004 Athens Games that sparked a revamping of the U.S. Olympic team selection process, the U.S. men have now won the past four Olympic gold medals—and maintains its status as world’s most formidable hoops power.

After the loss to France, the U.S. held a players-only meeting. “Pop wasn’t there,” Durant said after the gold-medal win, his coach, Gregg Popovich of the San Antonio Spurs, sitting on a dais right next to him. “When you have a team meeting, you’re kind of at the bottom.” Thanks in large part to Durant, who unlike most of his superstar brethren chose not to bail on Tokyo, the U.S. rose from those ashes. “A lot of people back home doubted us,” said Durant. “A lot of people said that it was going to be tough for us to win. They really don’t matter. But you hear the noise so much.”

Basketball - Olympics: Day 15
Gregory Shamus—Getty ImagesKevin Durant #7 of Team USA celebrates following the United States’ victory over France in the Men’s Basketball Finals game of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at Saitama Super Arena on Aug. 07, 2021 in Saitama, Japan.

Ultimately, the chirping served as motivation. From the outset, France had a clear strategy: toss the ball down-low to big-man Rudy Gobert, of the Utah Jazz, whenever the relatively slender Durant was guarding him, or when a smaller player switched to defend Gobert. The plan was far from aesthetically pleasing—there’s likely a reason that a pass into the post is often termed a “dump-down”—and flies in the face of in-vogue basketball tactics, which call for spacing and fast pace and lots of three-point shots.

But basketball’s no beauty competition. Gobert finished with 16 points and shot a perfect 5-5 from the field. But he also missed 7 of his 13 free throws: after the game, he admitted he’ll dwell on that failure a bit. And a few times, Holiday, who’s 10 inches shorter than the 7’1″ Gobert, bothered Gobert down low or poked it out of Gobert’s hands. His refusal to back down set a tone.

“Hey, it’s the gold medal game,” says Holiday. “No excuses.”

“This man is a super-champion,” said Jason Tatum of the Boston Celtics, Team USA’s second-leading scorer in the gold medal game with 19 points, putting a hand on Holiday’s shoulder. Holiday and Middleton are the fifth and sixth players ever to win an NBA title and gold medal in the same year; Michael Jordan (1992), Scottie Pippen (1992 and 1996), LeBron James (2012) and Kyrie Irving (2016) are the others.

But none of these players landed in the Olympic host city at 1 a.m. the day of a game. Between celebrating his ‘92 title with the Bulls and the start of the Barcelona Games, Jordan, Holiday pointed out, “had some time.”

Holiday, says teammate Draymond Green, “is probably the best on-ball defender the NBA has to offer. Him coming to this team, keeping his commitment, is one of the main reasons we’re sitting here as gold medalists.”

While Holiday set the defensive tone, Durant anchored the U.S. offense. Both teams did shoot—and miss—plenty of threes; the U.S. started a cool 0-8 before Durant ended that atrocious streak, and as a team finished 9-32 for the game; France went 10-31 from downtown, and bricked or air-balled three shots late that could have threatened Team USA’s lead even more (Holiday also helped hold France’s Evan Fournier, who scored 27 points in France’s pool-play victory over the U.S., to 5-15 shooting, and 2 for 9—including the late brick from Steph Curry range—from deep).

Durant did not enjoy his best long-range shooting game; he was 3-9 from three. But he delivered when needed. Durant scored 21 points in the first half alone; the U.S had a 44-39 lead at the half, and went up by as much as 14 points, 71-57, late in the third quarter, before France chipped away. France cut the deficit to three, 85-82, with 10 seconds left in the game; Durant was fouled and converted both free throws to clinch it.

All game long, Durant unleashed his usual array of drives to the hoops and silky pull-up jump shots. In the third quarter, he faced up against Gobert, and calmly drilled a three-pointer in his face, as if the reigning defensive player of the year wasn’t even there. Also in the third, he rose for a monster dunk on Gobert—and drew a foul. “We tried to make things really tough for him,” says Gobert. “We tried to make him work as hard as he can. But he’s Kevin Durant.”

At times, Durant’s own teammates can’t help but gawk. “It’s hard not to watch him,” says Damian Lillard. ”When you’re on the floor with him, Pop’s like don’t stand around, cut, move. But you see some of the stuff he’s doing out there, and it’s hard not to, literally, watch him.”

Durant has his haters: he can be insecure on social media, and some fans will never forgive him for jumping at the chance to sign with the Golden State Warriors after that team won a record 73-games in 2016; two titles followed the Warriors and Durant. But if these Olympics don’t win KD converts, nothing will.

USA Basketball managing director Jerry Colangelo, the architect of the last four gold-winning U.S. men’s Olympic teams, teared up after the game when discussing Durant’s sacrifices to play in three straight Olympics—especially these ones. “KD is not special because he’s so talented,” says Popovich, who’s won five NBA titles as long-time coach of the Spurs. “The way he works on his game is more impressive. The relationships he builds with his teammates, the respect he garners, the joy he has in playing, it’s like osmosis. It goes into all the other players, and allows you to develop camaraderie.

After it was over, Durant and Green, the multiple gold medalists, led the on-court celebrations, draping the U.S. flag on their shoulders, hugging and hopping around with their teammates. Don’t put it past Durant, who’s 32, to return to the Games in three years, in Paris. More of the bigger U.S. names might commit; France could be a more compelling locale than Tokyo, especially if COVID-19 is behind us.

But no matter, the Tokyo team has secured its place. These players, as a whole, may have lacked glitz. They were far from the perfect team. But, as Durant put it, “we came together to finish it off. It was the perfect ending.”

Read more about the Tokyo Olympics:



from RSSMix.com Mix ID 13001087 https://ift.tt/3xtl0mE

There are 3 disturbances to track in the tropics, 2 with better odds of development



from RSSMix.com Mix ID 13001087 https://ift.tt/3fGgrPw

Covid NI: Six further deaths and over 1,300 cases reported - Belfast Live

  1. Covid NI: Six further deaths and over 1,300 cases reported  Belfast Live
  2. Covid-19: NI has the highest infection rate in the UK  BBC News
  3. Covid infection level in England falls to one in 75 people  The Guardian
  4. Coronavirus Northern Ireland: Six further deaths and 1349 cases  Belfast Telegraph
  5. Covid-19: Six more Covid-linked deaths and 1,349 new cases  BBC News
  6. View Full coverage on Google News


from RSSMix.com Mix ID 13001087 https://ift.tt/37tuOm6

Tokyo Olympics: Golds for pentathlete Joe Choong & boxer Galal Yafai, cycling silver, Tom Daley and Josh Kerr bronzes - BBC News

  1. Tokyo Olympics: Golds for pentathlete Joe Choong & boxer Galal Yafai, cycling silver, Tom Daley and Josh Kerr bronzes  BBC News
  2. Boxing: Yafai wins men's flyweight boxing gold with victory over Paalam | Tokyo Olympics  BBC Sport
  3. Galal Yafai goes for flyweight boxing gold in the pick of Saturday’s action  The Independent
  4. Tokyo Olympics: Galal Yafai wins men's flyweight boxing gold with victory over Carlo Paalam  BBC Sport
  5. Tokyo Olympics: USA win basketball gold, Nelly Korda glory, medals for GB's Tom Daley and Galal Yafai - Morning Update  Eurosport UK
  6. View Full coverage on Google News


from RSSMix.com Mix ID 13001087 https://ift.tt/3ApKkvJ

US B-52 bombers and gunships sent into action in Afghanistan in attempt to stop Taliban advance on key cities



from RSSMix.com Mix ID 13001087 https://ift.tt/3lHc0b2

Archbishop of York: English people feel left behind by metropolitan elites - BBC News

  1. Archbishop of York: English people feel left behind by metropolitan elites  BBC News
  2. Archbishop of York calls for new vision of what it means to be English  The Guardian
  3. English are crying out to be heard, says archbishop  The Times
  4. Archbishop of York says English people ‘left behind’ by ‘metropolitan elites’ in London  The Independent
  5. The English have an identity, too  Telegraph.co.uk
  6. View Full coverage on Google News


from RSSMix.com Mix ID 13001087 https://ift.tt/3fFRHar

'Pandemic of the unvaccinated': US jab rollout slows as cases hit 100,000 a day - ITV News

'Pandemic of the unvaccinated': US jab rollout slows as cases hit 100,000 a day  ITV News

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 13001087 https://ift.tt/3ApTOHl

Support for independence drops significantly if Scotland were to join Euro - Telegraph.co.uk

  1. Support for independence drops significantly if Scotland were to join Euro  Telegraph.co.uk
  2. Covid in Scotland: 'Three Ds' rules for nightclub reopening  BBC News
  3. Andrew Neil brilliantly picks apart Sturgeon's independence plans - 'Sorry St Nicola'  Daily Express
  4. Covid in Scotland: Nicola Sturgeon urges ‘sensible precautions’ despite relaxation of rules on Monday and optimism about coronavirus situation  The Scotsman
  5. Covid in Scotland: Facemasks in crowds set to remain until next year  The Times
  6. View Full coverage on Google News


from RSSMix.com Mix ID 13001087 https://ift.tt/3yzNdcS

Virgin Atlantic takes flight with surprise plot to land on London stock market - Sky News

  1. Virgin Atlantic takes flight with surprise plot to land on London stock market  Sky News
  2. Richard Branson takes advantage of Brexit to float Virgin Atlantic  Telegraph.co.uk
  3. View Full coverage on Google News


from RSSMix.com Mix ID 13001087 https://ift.tt/2VpV6Dr

BT raids Asos to appoint Adam Crozier as new chairman - The Times

  1. BT raids Asos to appoint Adam Crozier as new chairman  The Times
  2. BT taps Adam Crozier as new chair  Financial Times
  3. View Full coverage on Google News


from RSSMix.com Mix ID 13001087 https://ift.tt/3CqTyJT

Debt and mental health: Covid has increased the pressure but help is available - The Guardian

Debt and mental health: Covid has increased the pressure but help is available  The Guardian

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 13001087 https://ift.tt/3lHUrYI

Princess Charlotte joins the Big Butterfly Count conservation project - Evening Standard

  1. Princess Charlotte joins the Big Butterfly Count conservation project  Evening Standard
  2. Prince William and Kate Middleton share new photo of Princess Charlotte holding a butterfly  Daily Mail
  3. William and Kate share new picture of Princess Charlotte taking part in Big Butterfly Count  Sky News
  4. William and Kate share unseen photo of Princess Charlotte holding butterfly  The Mirror
  5. Princess Charlotte steals the show in cute new butterfly pic by mum Kate for special event  Express
  6. View Full coverage on Google News


from RSSMix.com Mix ID 13001087 https://ift.tt/37rKYfO

How Biden’s E.V. Plan Could Help Tesla and Squeeze Toyota


By Jack Ewing and Neal E. Boudette from NYT Business https://ift.tt/3jqG6gh

Novavax Says U.S. Will Pause Funding for Production of Its Vaccine


By Sharon LaFraniere from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/3rYGrKU

Saturday, 7 August 2021

Funeral arrangements announced for slain Richmond couple



from RSSMix.com Mix ID 13001087 https://ift.tt/2VuKP8S

Japan’s COVID-19 Strategy Relied on Trust. Holding the Olympics Shattered It at the Worst Possible Time

On Tuesday evening about a dozen people huddled together around a big screen TV at a sports bar in a residential neighborhood in western Tokyo to watch Japan face off against Spain in the men’s soccer semifinals.

COVID-19 cases are hitting daily records in the Olympic host city, and the Japanese government has declared a state of emergency, asking bars and karaoke parlors to either close or not to serve alcohol and requesting most stores and restaurants to shut at 8 p.m. But the Olympics are in town, and the match is taking place just a 45-minute-train ride away.
[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

To avoid detection, the bar’s owner, Takashi, who asked to only go by his first name, has installed black curtains over the window facing the street, and he asks his guests to walk up the stairs instead of taking the elevator.

He lets his customers know when he’ll be open via LINE, Japan’s most popular instant messaging app. “I don’t say ‘the bar is open.’ Instead, I just write ‘Come by my place tonight if you’d like,’” the 60-year-old tells TIME.

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga insisted that there is no link between the Tokyo Summer Olympics and the dangerous surge in COVID-19. It’s true that, so far, strict infection control measures have curtailed the spread of the virus from the 60,000-some athletes, coaches, and media and staff who entered Japan for the Olympics and Paralympics.

READ MORE: Tokyo’s Plan to Avoid Pandemic Disaster During the Olympics

But experts—and a lot of Japanese scofflaws—say the government’s decision to plow ahead with the Olympics while also telling people to stay home and obey social distancing has shattered the willingness of many Japanese people to abide by the rules after 18 months of yo-yoing COVID-19 restrictions.

“We’ve been relying on the voluntary behavioral changes of the people,” Hitoshi Oshitani, the virologist who helped devise Japan’s original COVID-19 strategy, tells TIME. “It’s getting very difficult to persuade people to stay at home because we are holding the Olympics. So, we are in a very difficult situation right now.”

Scenes like those at Takashi’s bar are taking place all across Tokyo, and in some areas businesses and revelers are openly defying social distancing guidelines to party and celebrate the Japanese Olympic team’s most successful Games ever—22 gold medals and counting.

Backlash over Olympics and COVID-19 restrictions

Around Tokyo Olympics - Day 13
Yuichi Yamazaki—Getty ImagesPeople stand in the street and drink on August 5, 2021 in Tokyo, Japan.

Until this latest wave, Japan had been relatively successful against the virus. In early July, the country of 126 million people had recorded about 800,000 coronavirus cases and 15,000 deaths.

In addition to moving early to close its borders and implement testing and contact tracing, the government rolled out a “Three C’s” strategy developed by Oshitani, an easy-to-understand message to avoid closed spaces, crowded places and close-contact settings.

Others credited cultural factors; one widely shared list compiled more than 40 possible reasons cited by the media that COVID-19 infections were limited in Japan. It ranged from a culture of mask-wearing, to the propensity of Japanese people to listen to experts and government recommendations, to a low obesity rate.

Japan has also used state of emergency declarations when cases spiked, which involved a “soft lockdown” approach—asking people to follow social distancing guidelines, rather than making legal mandates. And for the most part people complied.

However, ahead of the Olympics Japan declared a fourth state of emergency for Tokyo as cases surged. More than 80% of Japanese people surveyed in May already opposed holding the Games this year, and the state of emergency only added to frustrations. The latest measures ask people to refrain from unnecessary travel, and call on restaurants and bars to shorten their hours and not serve alcohol.

READ MORE: Japan Has a Plan to Protect the Olympics From COVID-19. But Can It Protect Itself From the Olympics?

But TIME spoke to several bar owners who are still operating. They say their frustrations over the government’s approach, and concern over losing business outweigh their worries about COVID and about getting caught and fined.

Tips on which bars and restaurants are open in certain areas are circulating on Twitter and other social media sites. Online restaurant guides, similar to Yelp, have information about which restaurants are serving alcohol. The owner of the renowned restaurant Gonpachi, where the fight scene from the movie Kill Bill: Volume 1 took place, said he would defy virus restrictions and open as normal.

In Tokyo’s Golden Gai area, known for its tiny bars and eateries, some of which fit only four to six people, chatter and music could still be heard at 1:30 a.m. this week. Most bars have followed the rules and close at night, but for those that do stay open, bartenders are chatting with their customers, their masks pulled down below their chins. Here, it’s impossible to abide by any of Japan’s three C’s of COVID-19 prevention.

A few blocks away in Kabukicho, where the streets are filled with hostess bars and love hotels, people gather in groups, drinking and chatting on the street. Many of them don’t wear masks. A nearby restaurant that serves skewers tells TIME it closes at 5 a.m.

“People felt like the government declared the fourth state of emergency for the Olympics,” says Takashi, the Tokyo sports bar owner. “People are frustrated, and such frustration causes people to break rules.”

Takashi says he heeded the first two states of emergency in the spring of 2020 and earlier this year, but he feels that the government has unfairly targeted restaurants and bars. He also points to government officials who have flouted their own COVID-19 restrictions while asking the public to stay at home. In March, Japan’s health minister apologized over a late-night party involving 23 officials from his ministry, at a time when the government told restaurants and bars to close by 9 p.m.

Ayaka, a 27-year-old who lives in Tokyo, says that it doesn’t make sense to her that the government is urging people not to travel while still allowing people from all over the world to enter Japan. She and her boyfriend went on vacation during a holiday weekend in late July to Hokkaido—500 miles north of the capital.

“What the government is doing about the Olympics and what it is telling local people to do are incompatible, and it is infuriating,” she says. “I know we still have to stay careful not to catch or spread the infection, but I didn’t want to listen to what the government tells us to do anymore.”

Of course, there are many still opposed to the rule-breaks. Ayaka says that she and her boyfriend were afraid of walking around Hokkaido with their suitcases for fear of encountering “quarantine vigilantes.”

COVID-19 in Japan: Bad and getting worse

Tokyo Olympics Cancel
Yuichi Yamazaki—Getty ImagesAnti-Olympics protesters demonstrate against the Tokyo Olympic in front of the Tokyo Metropolitan government building in Tokyo, Japan on August 05, 2021.

The change in behavior for many Japanese people couldn’t have come at a worse time.

On Thursday, nationwide cases topped 15,000 for the first time. The same day, Tokyo recorded a single-day record of 5,042 new cases, up nearly 900 from the previous day, which was also a record. People in their 20s and 30s accounted for more than half of the new cases, according to local media. (Although approximately 31% of the population is vaccinated, Japan’s vaccine campaign has prioritized medical workers and older people, meaning vaccination rates are very low among the young.)

The more contagious Delta variant now accounts for about 90% of new cases in the Tokyo region.

In Tokyo, around 50% of hospital beds are full, and around 64% of beds for serious cases were full as of July 28. Earlier this week, Suga asked people with COVID-19 to stay home from hospitals unless their symptoms are serious.

READ MORE: Tokyo Is Facing a Record COVID-19 Surge. One Thing That Could Slow It? Japan’s Olympic Athletes Losing

The government has responded to the surge by further extending the state of emergency until the end of August and expanding it to the prefectures surrounding Tokyo.

But Kentaro Iwata, an infectious disease specialist at Kobe University, says doesn’t believe that the states of emergency are effective any longer. “The more you declare a state of emergency, the more it becomes powerless because you’re so used to it,” he says.

Many, including some of the dozen or so customers who gathered at Takashi’s sports bar on Tuesday night, are simply tired of the restrictions. It’s been one year and four months since the government declared Tokyo’s first state of emergency.

“It is important to hang out with people and enjoy occasional drinks,” says one customer, who asked that their name not be used. “That helps me to stay healthy as well, because I feel much better when I meet other people. It is not really mentally healthy if you just stay at home, it is too depressing.”

Another customer tells TIME that she isn’t too worried about the virus, because they only go to places close to home, and she knew almost every other customer in the bar. “I do avoid going to bars in crowded places, such as Shibuya and Shinjuku. That would be scary.”

Experts say that case numbers still haven’t peaked, and they will continue to surge after the Closing Ceremony on Sunday. One expert told a Tokyo COVID-19 committee that daily case numbers in the Olympic host city could double in August if new infections continue to increase at the current pace.

Oshitani says that, with the country’s medical system overwhelmed, the Japan may be facing a deadly, new phase in the pandemic. “For these cases now,” he says, “we may not be able to prevent many of them from developing severe illness by providing early treatment.”

—With reporting from Aria Chen/Tokyo.



from RSSMix.com Mix ID 13001087 https://ift.tt/3jtTlNh

UK housing market cools as stamp duty holiday winds down - The Guardian

  1. UK housing market cools as stamp duty holiday winds down  The Guardian
  2. House price growth slows as housing market cools  BBC News
  3. Runaway house prices cool off in July  Telegraph.co.uk
  4. Average UK house prices in July jumped 7.6% year on year, but London growth lags the regions  Evening Standard
  5. UK house price growth cools as stamp duty boom fades  Yahoo Finance UK
  6. View Full coverage on Google News


from RSSMix.com Mix ID 13001087 https://ift.tt/3fCtodm

Afghanistan: Dawa Khan Menapal assassinated in Kabul



from RSSMix.com Mix ID 13001087 https://ift.tt/3xn5Fny

Morrisons agrees to raised £6.7bn takeover offer from Fortress

The new £6.7bn bid for the supermarket from Fortress comes amid rumours of a rival offer from another US firm.

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 13001087 https://ift.tt/3fF41rc

Morrisons agrees to raised £6.7bn takeover offer from Fortress - BBC News

  1. Morrisons agrees to raised £6.7bn takeover offer from Fortress  BBC News
  2. Fortress-led group increases offer for Morrisons to £6.7bn  The Guardian
  3. FTSE latest: Morrisons keeps M&A party on mid-cap index going, with higher offer from Fortress-led consortium  Evening Standard
  4. Fortress raises bid for Morrisons ahead of rival buyer’s deadline  Financial Times
  5. Morrisons takeover bid raised to £6.7bn by Fortress  Yahoo Finance UK
  6. View Full coverage on Google News


from RSSMix.com Mix ID 13001087 https://ift.tt/3jmJZCQ

Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer issues Raphael Varane transfer update - Manchester Evening News

  1. Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer issues Raphael Varane transfer update  Manchester Evening News
  2. Manchester United 4-0 Everton (17-18) | Premier League Classics | Manchester United  Manchester United
  3. Manchester United transfer news: Ole Gunnar Solskjaer says more signings a 'bonus', gives Paul Pogba update  Sky Sports
  4. Solskjaer's update on the Varane transfer  Manchester United
  5. Bruno Fernandes on Man Utd squad's view over Jadon Sancho and Raphael Varane transfers  Daily Star
  6. View Full coverage on Google News


from RSSMix.com Mix ID 13001087 https://ift.tt/3xo95qd

COVID-19: Infection rates fall in all home nations apart from Northern Ireland, according to ONS study - Sky News

  1. COVID-19: Infection rates fall in all home nations apart from Northern Ireland, according to ONS study  Sky News
  2. Covid infection rates in England plummet with 1 in 75 people testing positive  The Mirror
  3. Covid infections fall in England, figures suggest  The Independent
  4. Covid hotspots MAPPED: Cases PLUMMET across all regions of England - latest data  Express
  5. Here are the latest Covid infection rates for every local area in England  Wales Online
  6. View Full coverage on Google News


from RSSMix.com Mix ID 13001087 https://ift.tt/3AiXt9O

Psyche asteroid is packed full of precious metals and could be worth more than $10,000 quadrillion - Daily Mail

  1. Psyche asteroid is packed full of precious metals and could be worth more than $10,000 quadrillion  Daily Mail
  2. Observatory in Chile takes highest-resolution measurements of asteroid surface temperatures ever obtained from earth  Phys.org
  3. View Full coverage on Google News


from RSSMix.com Mix ID 13001087 https://ift.tt/3jrrXQ9

Annette Is Gorgeous to Look at But All the Wrong Kinds of Weird

With the future of communal cinema feeling so perilous, many of us who love the movies might be feeling it’s time to go big or go home. Give me a spectacle or give me nothing; don’t just tease me, jolt me. It’s possible to be both exhausted and hungry for experience, almost any experience. Most of us don’t know what we want right now—so we feel our way along, hoping that we’ll know it when we see it, or bump into it.

Is Annette—the first film in nine years from French filmmaker and madman poet Leos Carax, and a collaboration with the enduring and ceaselessly inventive art-pop duo Sparks—the it we’ve been waiting for? Or is it the year’s be-careful-what-you-wish-for movie, the monkey’s paw that pretends to fulfill some unexpressed longing but really just leaves you with a handful of air?
[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

As I stare at the air in my hand, I have to concede that Annette is not the movie I was hoping for, nor is it the movie I didn’t know I wanted. A picture that’s gorgeous to look at but too hyper-manicured to be genuinely moving, it hovers somewhere in an indefinable in-between. I keep believing that if I just think about it more, I’ll like it better, but it’s time to give up. Annette is an extravagant-looking and often inventive film, but it’s not a great one.

Read More: This Summer, We’re Going to Go to the Movies More—and Love It More

Marion Cotillard and Adam Driver star as mismatched lovers Ann and Henry, both in show-biz but each playing to the audience in different ways. Ann is an opera singer, fragile and captivating onstage, somewhere between waif and warrior. Each night she sends spectral melodies out into the universe, songs with the weblike clarity of spun glass. Then she dies on-stage, and the crowd goes wild—it’s her signature move. Henry is a perpetually angry comedian—his moniker is the Ape of God—and in performance, he almost literally comes out swinging, dressed in a hooded terry wrapper that’s a cross between a boxer’s robe and the kind of thing a bitter old man shuffles around the house in. He challenges his audience by refusing to capitulate to them, and they love it—his self-loathing pugilism is a turn-on.

Still, he does confess to that audience that he’s a changed man now that he’s fallen in love with his opera singer. And when, after his show, he zips through the streets of Los Angeles to pick her up after her show, you think for a minute there might be hope for these two—that she can soften his hard edges as you’d wear in a pair of leather shoes, and he can give her a little ballast, to prevent her, sensitive creature that she is, from blowing off the face of the Earth altogether.

These two are in love—we know it because they sing a pensive ballad to one another, “We Love Each Other So Much,” whose lyrics consist largely of that repeated line. (Driver’s voice is robust, like brown suede; Cotillard’s has the tone and texture of pastel watered silk. There’s plenty that doesn’t work in Annette, but the sound of these two singing together is one of the movie’s charms.) In their minimalist-chic house in the woods, Henry and Ann have lush, elegant sex, including some artfully administered cunnilingus. Carax and cinematographer Caroline Champetier stage these scenes beautifully, if decorously: the character’s bodies curl together like pale forest mushrooms brushed with moonlight, an image of fairytale enchantment that’s also delicately carnal.

And inevitably, these two conceive a child, though she isn’t actually a child—she’s a marionette, a beautifully sculpted puppet with enormous ears and unnervingly plaintive, expressive features. Her name is Annette, and she’s been born with an extraordinary gift.

MARION COTILLARD and ADAM DRIVER stars in ANNETTE
Courtesy of Amazon Studios—© 2021 Amazon Content Services LLCCotillard’s Ann gives birth to magical baby Annette, with papa Henry (Driver) ready to cut the cord

Annette is an operatic tragedy written in big loops, as well as in some very repetitive songs. Ann and Henry may love each other just that much—like those little naked statuettes from the 1970s who profess their adoration with outstretched arms—but it’s not enough to save them. Henry’s love for Ann doesn’t make him stronger and kinder, but angrier and meaner. Driver’s height and brawn are used to menacing effect here. He’s never been so believably unlikable, which is certainly an achievement, if it’s the kind of thing you want to see. Ann becomes a victim of his fury; little Annette becomes a pawn. A fourth party, Ann’s loyal piano accompanist (played, with resonant tenderness, by Simon Helberg), holds a lonely secret.

There’s a lot of movie here: Ron Mael and Russell Mael, of Sparks (and the subjects of Edgar Wright’s recent and wholly delightful documentary The Sparks Brothers), have concocted a sprawling mansion of a story. There’s always a new door, opening almost inevitably into a shadowy room you might be hesitant to look into. The ending is set up to be poignant, and some may find it so—but I felt so worked over by the movie’s excessive self-awareness that, even at the end of this extravagant and sometimes impressive sprawl, I found myself echoing Peggy Lee: Is that all there is?

The Maels have been making music as Sparks for some 50 years; their work tends to be clever and lively and laced with bone-dry humor. But they’re also at times guilty of being arch, perhaps too taken with their own wicked wordplay. And Annette is, overall, too knowingly affected. In its deliberate stylization, it’s weird, all right—but this is assertive weirdness as opposed to organic weirdness. It also suffers from a maddening lack of clarity, even within its own world of opera-fairytale logic: In one musical number, a group of women come forward with MeToo-style allegations against Henry, but this bombshell is dropped and then forgotten. Meanwhile, Ann’s feelings largely remain opaque, and it’s not Cotillard’s fault: She spends a great deal of time staring moonily from the window of her limo, a half-eaten apple nearby. She’s having feelings, clearly, but they’re detached from her being, like a cartoon voice bubble.

Marion Cotillard plays a delicate opera singer in ‘Annette’

It could be that the Mael brothers and Carax just aren’t the best fit; maybe their idiosyncrasies spark an unintentional dissonance. The movie’s opening number, “So May We Start?” is the strongest, and it’s thrilling: We see Carax and his daughter, Nastya, as well as Ron and Russell Mael and a few of the story’s supporting players spilling out of a recording studio and into the street, where they’re joined by Cotillard, Driver and Helberg. Just for now, we’re seeing these performers as versions of themselves, if not quite themselves, and their singing is hearty and definitive. They’re warming us up for the show ahead, promising great wonders to come as they set up for us that figurative fourth wall we all love so much.

Annette
© 2021 Amazon Content Services LLCThe opening musical number, ‘So May We Start,’ is the movie’s strongest

But nothing in Annette, as ambitious and sometimes gorgeous as it is, comes close to the haunting beauty of Carax’s last movie, the 2012 Holy Motors. In that film, the astonishing acrobatic actor Denis Lavant played a mysterious peddler of dreams and sometimes nightmares, tooling around the most beautiful Paris imaginable in a white stretch limo. The Samaritaine department store—once grand, but recently shuttered at the time of the movie’s filming—had its own supporting role, looming over the proceedings like a mournful gray ghost. What is Holy Motors about, literally? Damned if I know—beyond that it’s about all the things we ask of movies, blessings that, if we’re lucky, we actually receive. Annette makes a similar promise of emotional richness, but no matter how much of themselves the filmmakers have poured into it, the payoff is skimpy. This is a movie singing passionately to itself, even as we sit patiently all the way through, wishing it were singing to us.



from RSSMix.com Mix ID 13001087 https://ift.tt/3ytYDyJ

Tokyo Olympics: Team GB's Kate French wins sensational GOLD in the women's modern pentathlon - Daily Mail

  1. Tokyo Olympics: Team GB's Kate French wins sensational GOLD in the women's modern pentathlon  Daily Mail
  2. Tokyo 2020 Olympics: athletics and football finals plus more GB golds – live!  The Guardian
  3. Tokyo Olympics 2020 live: Kate French wins gold in women's modern pentathlon - latest updates  The Telegraph
  4. Tokyo Olympics: Kate French wins gold medal for Team GB in modern pentathlon  Sky News
  5. Kate French surges to Olympic gold for GB in modern pentathlon  The Guardian
  6. View Full coverage on Google News


from RSSMix.com Mix ID 13001087 https://ift.tt/3fBF7c2

SEO Improvement in 2024

https://en.ereferer.com/user/page/gene-d-robles-19 https://rentry.co/wyv99mo5 https://rentry.co/kbiby ======================================...

start entrepreneur online - how to start entrepreneur online