The performances will take place on Oct. 10 and 11 at the Gazprom Arena, a venue capable of hosting around 80,000 spectators.

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When Berti Vogts was unveiled as Scotland’s first foreign manager, back in 2002, he had a simple instruction. “When we are playing,” he said, “you can call me Berti McVogts!” Scotland fans preferred a slightly courser sobriquet when, six months later, Scotland went 2-0 down to the Faroe Islands before scrambling a 2-2 draw. Vogts left after two-and-a-half ultimately unsuccessful years, and since then Scotland have preferred homegrown managers. But it’s good to try everything twice, except maybe Gigli, and the Scottish FA has appointed one of European football’s most interesting young managers: Sébastien Pocognoli, who was unveiled at a press conference on Monday.

Watching Manchester City under new management for the first time, it’s kind of spooky how much Enzo Maresca channels the ghost of Pep Guardiola on the touchline. Except they are losing” – Chris Jersan.

Dave Hill’s letter [Friday’s Football Daily] made me feel old. My immediate reaction was: ‘Too much money sloshing around at the top; there should be a salary cap.’ Then I realised that I could just about remember the campaign for a minimum wage for footballers. All in the span of one lifetime” – Trevor Townson.

Re: your mention in Friday’s Football Daily of Graeme Souness being sent off in the first half of his first game as Rangers player-manager v Hibs. This event led to pubs popular with Celtic fans in the east end of Glasgow being inundated with requests for a new drink: ‘I’ll have a Souness please … mine’s a half and then I’m off’” – Danny Sullivan.

This is an extract from our daily football email … Football Daily. To get the full version, just visit this page and follow the instructions. 

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She starred in her first soap opera at 4 – then the hit show Heroes was totally reworked to allow her character, Claire the regenerating cheerleader, to live on. We celebrate the star, who has died age 36

• Hayden Panettiere – a life in pictures

When Hayden Panettiere arrived as Claire Bennet in Heroes, in 2006, she was 17 but not a newcomer. She’d starred in Tiger Cruise, a Disney Channel movie, two years before and was the pin-perfect image of that teen-star world – blond, cute, perky, resourceful and all-American. Bennet the superhero was all those things, amped up to the point of fascinating distortion. She was a cheerleader who could endlessly regenerate. It was a topic of hot debate on fan sites whether or not she could feel pain, a question that was resolved piecemeal through the series. She could, but could instantly overcome it with her superpower – that fact partly informed the view of one academic, professor Olvido Andújar Molina, that Bennet was standing in for the American dream, its core components being strength, resilience and a sweet-natured homeliness.

In Tiger Cruise, Panettiere had filled a similar role, the cute-as-a-button daughter of a naval commander, producing this elemental, almost mournful Oz-like message: “Everything you long for is right here at home.” She was from a showbiz family, her mother, Lesley Vogel, was a soap actor, and her brother, Jansen, who also possessed those perfectly symmetrical features, co-starred in Tiger Cruise, and later, in 2011, in The Forger (better known as the last film Lauren Bacall ever made). Jansen also died horribly young, of complications from an engorged heart, in 2023 aged 28. Panettiere got her first soap opera gig, in One Life to Live, at the age of four, and went on to a recurring role into Guiding Light before she was 10. She was the voice of Dot in A Bug’s Life, and was nominated for a Grammy for her work on the film.

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‘People tell me it helped them with their rehab. I have to explain: Sorry, it’s not about alcohol – I was just a kid singing about injustice’

I wrote the lyrics on the floor of my bedroom in Basingstoke when I was 16 or 17, as a way of decompressing from studying for my A-levels. I had the idea for “Twist in my …” something, but didn’t know what else to put in there. I tried “Twist in my gravity” before ending up with “sobriety”, but it’s not a song about alcohol. It’s about feeling that things aren’t right in the world, and that adults can do terrible or immoral things – but none of it will change you. Fundamentally, it’s a song by an alienated teenager who feels there’s a lot of injustice. There’s something lovely about how intensely you feel things as a teenager.

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British sprinter catapulted herself into the mainstream by winning four golds in Birmingham and celebrated her final golden night in style

Long before Amy Hunt catapulted herself into the mainstream by winning an unprecedented four gold medals at the European Championships, she was remarkably upfront about her ambitions. There was no coyness. No equivocation. She wanted the quadruple in Birmingham. And having talked a good game, she delivered.

She celebrated her final golden night in Birmingham with a glass of champagne and a KFC, as well as a 2am massage to ensure her legs would be fresh for her next race in Lausanne on Friday. It meant going to bed at 4am. But despite being on four hours sleep on Monday morning, she is sharp as a tack as she explains why being bold is good for her – and her sport.

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Next year’s competition won’t take place in the country’s capital, an announcement that even surprised Bulgarian winner, Dara

Ever since Bulgarian singer Dara was crowned winner of the Eurovision song contest this May, it has been clear that the Balkan nation would for the first time in its history have the opportunity to host Europe’s biggest party.

So when Bulgarian officials announced last week that the world’s largest live music event in 2027 will be held not in the capital Sofia but in Burgas, a Black Sea port city home to 200,000 people, it came as a surprise – even to last year’s winner.

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Mother and son Olga and Nikita Belov were facing torture and death after their asylum claim was repeatedly rejected

A Russian family who were on the brink of being deported from Finland after repeatedly being denied asylum – despite the threat of arrest, imprisonment and torture for their pro-Ukrainian activism – have won a court appeal and will have their case reconsidered.

Nikita Belov and his mother, Olga Belov, fled their homeland for Finland in 2022 after attracting the attention of Russian authorities – including a military summons, threatening messages and attempts to locate them – for expressing opposition to the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

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Larne’s Dan Bent has played in two European competitions this summer and now faces a former team in a Conference League tie that could earn vital funds for his club

By Playing in the Shadows

Premier League footballers are gearing up for the start of the season, but some of their fellow professionals in smaller leagues across Europe have been going all summer – even those who play a winter campaign. Some played the biggest games of their lives when the rest of us were watching the World Cup. The Champions League qualifiers began when the World Cup was at the last-16 stage, with some clubs already knocked out of Europe by the time England were beaten by Argentina in Atlanta.

Larne, the champions of Northern Ireland, began their European crusade on the day Argentina beat Egypt in the World Cup last-16, Dan Bent’s penalty in the second leg a week later helping them overcome Tre Fiori of San Marino in the Champions League. Larne’s reward was a meeting with former European champions Red Star Belgrade. They were beaten 9-0 on aggregate by the Serbian giants, but it is an experience Bent will treasure for ever.

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Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

If you ever find yourself in the East Village in New York City, do yourself a favor and grab a smashburger at Cafe Maude.

You won’t regret it.

It goes well with a Five Boroughs Pilsner.

Op de A15 zijn ter hoogte van Papendrecht twee voertuigen op elkaar gebotst. Hierbij belandde de achterste auto op zijn kop. De weg was lange tijd volledig afgesloten richting Rotterdam.

Op de A15 zijn ter hoogte van Papendrecht twee voertuigen op elkaar gebotst. Hierbij belandde de achterste auto op zijn kop. De weg is vanaf Sliedrecht-Oost in de richting van Rotterdam volledig afgesloten.

I think we’re pretty good at telling the difference between an AI generated image and a real photograph, but when I need help I call Hany Farid. 

Farid is the cofounder of GetReal, a company that specializes in detecting deepfakes and other AI-generated images, and is the developer of PhotoDNA, a perceptual hashing algorithm that helps companies automatically detect and remove some of the worst images that exist online, and that is now being used by every serious internet platform in the world. 

We started talking to Hany regularly in 2017, when Sam first reported on deepfakes. As that technology evolved and changed how we perceive reality, so have our conversations. I wanted to talk to him today on the podcast so you could hear of those conversations, and so that Hany and I could zoom out, reflect on the past few years, and speculate about where we might be headed. 

404 Media is a journalist-founded company and needs your support. To subscribe, go to 404media.co. As well as bonus content every single week, subscribers get access to additional episodes where we respond to their best comments. Subscribers also get early access to our interview series. Gain access to that content at 404media.co.

Listen to the weekly podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. 

Become a paid subscriber for early access to these interview episodes and to power our journalism. If you become a paid subscriber, check your inbox for an email from our podcast host Transistor for a link to the subscribers-only version! You can also add that subscribers feed to your podcast app of choice and never miss an episode that way. The email should also contain the subscribers-only unlisted YouTube link for the extended video version too. It will also be in the show notes in your podcast player.

De brandweervrijwilligers die samen het korps vormen van Cadzand, hebben een kort geding aangespannen om sluiting van hun kazerne te voorkomen. Er zijn te weinig vrijwilligers over, vindt de Veiligheidsregio. Er zijn perspectieven, zeggen de vrijwilligers zelf.

De Russische staat nam half juli het beheer over van de dochterbedrijven van AkzoNobel in Rusland. Kort daarop maakte het bedrijf omgerekend 10 miljoen euro over naar een groep die geld inzamelt voor de Russische oorlog tegen Oekraïne, blijkt uit berichten in Russische media.

Some take their criticism even further. Reacting to Flock's changes, an EFF statement calls it "Too little, too late," while calling it Flock's admission that their technology needs reforms. But...

To be clear, our position has long been that police, at a minimum, need to get a warrant, signed by a judge, in order to search for historic ALPR data regarding specific vehicles. For us, it's common sense: if police want to dip into historic ALPR data like they were going back in time to retroactively follow your comings and goings, they need a warrant.


There's also nothing stopping Flock from rescinding these latest reforms.

This all leads to the bigger and more important issue: We should not be letting companies decide how much privacy we deserve... It shouldn't be up to Flock or any other ALPR vendor to decide how long police can collect and retain data on millions, if not hundreds of millions, of innocent people. We need lawmakers to step up and pass laws that restrict police's use of surveillance technology.

After all, the surveillance business model is the problem, and a few company-imposed slapdash reforms aren't going to change that.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Windows 11 has moved one step closer to matching Windows 10 after Microsoft slid a movable taskbar into the Release Preview Channel. The feature allows the Windows taskbar to be positioned at the top, left, or right of the screen, as well as at its default location along the bottom. Users have long requested its return after Microsoft dropped the capability from Windows 11. After floating around the Windows Insider Program for several months, the feature reached the Release Preview Channel late last week. Other taskbar tweaks in Release Preview include a compact option with smaller icons and reduced height, freeing up more of the desktop. Microsoft has not said when the enhancements will reach general availability, but their arrival in Release Preview suggests a wider rollout may be only weeks or months away. Microsoft has also added Start menu customization options, allowing users to choose between small and large layouts rather than accept the default size. The promised Windows Search updates are also present, making the service more "dependable" and allowing users to remove Microsoft Store and web suggestions from the results. The Release Preview also contains a couple of changes likely to please admins. Administrator protection lets users perform elevated tasks through just-in-time privileges. It is disabled by default but can be enabled through Intune or Group Policy. Microsoft has also pulled Windows Management Instrumentation Command-line (WMIC). WMIC's demise may prompt a sigh of relief, since miscreants have long used the utility to run commands and move around compromised systems. Deprecated years ago and already absent by default from new installations of Windows 11 24H2 and 25H2, WMIC has now disappeared from the Features on Demand list. Admins still using the utility may nevertheless feel the change. WMI itself is unaffected, and Microsoft recommends PowerShell as WMIC's replacement. ®

What songs have been/were stuck in your head? What are your preferred methods for expunging a pernicious earworm? This is you weekly #FreeThread.

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De bron van de bovenstaande foto is Trita Parsi, een Iraans-Zweeds-Amerikaanse auteur en voorzitter van het Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, dat bekend staat als tegenstander van Amerikaanse militaire interventies tegen Iran. Hij schrijft dat de ongeverifieerde foto hem 'vanuit het veld' toegestuurd werd. Er staat o.a. te lezen: "I love Israel and I am a good Goyim”, “Peace Deal #64 Incoming…", “Operation Epstein Fury”, “Be a good goy and do what Israel tells you to!!!”, “Bibi’s Cucks”, "All this for the Holy Land", “I <3 Flock Cameras” en het meer neutrale "Suck wieners and balls". Ook staat er in hoofdletters "WOLT", wat in Israël de grootste maaltijdbezorg-app is, en speculatie voedt dat deze stratotanker, zoals zoveel stratotankers, op Ben Gurion Airport in Israël gestationeerd is. Moet ook bij opgemerkt worden: alle zes Amerikaanse luchtbemanningsdoden betroffen de bemanning van een neergestorte stratotanker, dus deze crews kennen de klappen van deze oorlog. 

Afijn, mocht de foto authentiek blijken (en die kans achten we erg hoog), dan is dat dus een nieuwe blijk van een moreel die betere tijden gekend heeft. Net zoals aan boord van het Amerikaanse vliegdekschip de USS Abraham Lincoln, waar de sanitaire voorzieningen en de geestelijke toestand van bemanningsleden, na een moderne recordtijd van meer dan 250 dag onafgebroken op zee, een dieptepunt zou hebben bereikt. MinDef Hegseth en CENTCOM ontkenden dat vrij stellig, maar toch ging het hoofd van CENTCOM Admiraal Bradley Cooper er gisteren maar even een integriteitsontbijtje aan boord doen. 

En we moeten zeggen; hij kiest wel echt de Trumpiaanse lijn van de andere kant op overdrijven, door te stellen dat de benamming aan boord van dit schip juist de mentaal gezondste van de actieve vloot is: "Here's an important fact: of the U.S. Navy's 11 active aircraft carriers, the Lincoln currently has the lowest number of cases related to mental health." Ook misschien niet heel afschrikwekkend naar de VIJAND, na talloze berichen over een doordraaiende bemanning, dat het aan boord van de andere 10 vliegdekschepen nog veel erger gesteld is, maar hey. Beelden van zijn bezoek onderstaand.

Ondertussen liet Trump zich een uur geleden ook weer eens over de kwestie uit en schreef: "The number one Goal is, and always will be, that Iran cannot have, in any way, shape, or form, a Nuclear Weapon. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP". Ja dat wisten we!

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In alle eerlijkheid: geen schoonheidsprijs maar we hadden het erger verwacht

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