Time for disgraced Ronaldo to prove ‘best timing is always my timing’ after Man United exit
“In my life, the best timing is always my timing,” Cristiano Ronaldo said this week. Well, now we are about to find out if he is right. Less than 48 hours before Portugal are due to kick off their World Cup campaign against Ghana, arguably the most-high profile footballer in...
Restless Ronaldo kisses $19 million goodbye as he exits Man United to try unknown ‘new challenge’
Cristiano Ronaldo has kissed goodbye to £16 million ($19 million) after it was confirmed that he has left Manchester United with immediate effect. Ronaldo’s exit has been agreed by mutual consent but it can be revealed that United have not paid any compensation for the remaining seven months of his...
Qatar temperatures: How teams are dealing with extreme heat to ensure high player performance
The first match of the men’s football World Cup kicked off in Qatar on Sunday November 20 when the temperature was around 30 °C and humidity was nearly 60 per cent. When Qatar first won the bid to host the tournament 12 years ago, extreme heat was one of several...
South African society is ‘criminogenic’, made worse by policing style that’s archaic in structure and texture
Rising levels of murder and robbery, gender-based violence, embedded organised crime and police corruption characterise South Africa’s crime crisis. Can the country’s system of policing and safety be fixed? And if so, how? Our continuing reference point for answers is the decade-old National Development Plan that advises on strengthening police...
What is holding back rebel rollout of demobilisation programme in eastern DRC?
The Democratic Republic of Congo has been encouraged to accelerate the rollout of a new programme to demobilise rebel fighters amid surging conflict with armed groups, including the M23, which has seized yet more territory in eastern parts of the country. But there are limited funds for the programme, which...
How US-supplied weaponry fuels conflicts and makes it easier for repressive regimes to commit war crimes
Here’s a seldom commented-upon reality of this century and this moment: the United States remains the number-one arms-exporting nation on the planet. Between 2017 and 2021, it grabbed 39 per cent of the total global weapons market and there’s nothing new about that. It has, in fact, been the top...
How NASA finally got Artemis 1 rocket off the ramp and into space after previous false starts
In early November, scientists at Kennedy Space Center in Florida trundled Artemis 1 rocket back to the pad in anticipation of a November 14 launch, just as Tropical Storm Nicole – soon to elevate to hurricane strength – grew on the horizon. NASA considered moving the rocket into shelter again,...
NASA’s launch of Artemis 1 rocket is billed ‘test flight’ that pays way for future crewed missions
After years of delays and several false starts, the wait is finally over: NASA’s massive Space Launch System rocket and the Orion capsule lifted off at 1:48 am Eastern time, heading for a historic lunar flyby. Crowds of onlookers watched at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where the thunder...
World Cup: ‘Being Neymar’ is a global industry in its own right as it is with Messi, Mbappe or CR7
What does Brazil’s No.10 Neymar da Silva Santos expect in Qatar? Neymar’s answer is cautious. “The World Cup is full of surprises,” he says. “You get teams that unexpectedly get very far even in the competition even if many don’t believe in them. But I believe the favourites are Argentina,...
World’s best dribbler Neymar on why thinks Argentina, France and Germany are Brazil’s main rivals
With just three days to go until the World Cup begins, there is an increasing expectation that much of what happens will revolve around how Brazil, led by their flamboyant ringmaster, their number 10, perform. That shirt is the most iconic in football, and those who wear it carry the...
