Europees kampioen Spanje heeft de kwartfinales bereikt van het WK voetbal. De ploeg van bondscoach Luis de la Fuente won in de achtste finales met 1-0 van Portugal.
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Outgoing PM will stress British commitment to defence spending at meeting in Ankara to counter Trump rebukes
Keir Starmer will seek to work with European allies to shore up support for Nato at its summit in Ankara on Tuesday amid concerns that Donald Trump could further destabilise the military alliance with threats over defence spending.
Downing Street said the prime minister and other international leaders would be focused on “building a stronger and more European Nato” as they attempt to address the US president’s concerns in the Turkish capital.
Continue reading...Nat Sciver-Brunt and Sophie Molineux led their teams expertly, and Australia v India at Lord’s felt like a final
It’s easy to understand why Beth Mooney was chosen as player of the tournament after her magnificent innings in the final. Also in the running must surely be Danni Wyatt-Hodge, whose hundred on the opening night at Edgbaston set the tone for a confident campaign by England (at least until they ran into the Australian juggernaut in the final).
Continue reading...It ended with a goal from a tall, slightly ungainly figure driving through the centre-forward position – but perhaps not the one that the narrative demanded. In stoppage time, Mikel Merino ran on to Ferran Torres’s through-ball and, with impressive calm after a scrappy game that had largely lacked it, rolled the winner past Diogo Costa. He celebrated, as he had after his winner against Germany at the Euros two years ago, with a run around the corner flag, echoing his father’s celebration after scoring for Osasuna in Stuttgart in 1991.
At the other end, an actual centre-forward slumped. For Cristiano Ronaldo, this was the end. As the final whistle blew, he stood staring bleakly into the middle distance, mortality having caught up with him at last. He is the only player ever to score in six different World Cups, but he will not score in another one. At 41, the tournament is finally all over for a player whose longevity has been a marvel.
Continue reading...British wildcard has no quit in him and fought back to deny Grigor Dimitrov and reach the Wimbledon quarter-finals
Who the hell taught Arthur Fery when to know when he’s beaten? It’s easier to kick nicotine than it is to make this kid quit. He made it through to the fourth round by twice fighting his way back after trailing by a set and a break to defeat Zizou Bergs in a fifth‑set tie‑break, and now he’s gone on to the quarter‑finals by doing it all over again after being a set and a break down against Grigor Dimitrov.
There are brick walls with more ive in them. Against Dimitrov the 23‑year‑old Fery, who has never made it past the second round of a grand slam tournament, almost lost, almost lost, and almost lost again. And then in the end, he won.
Continue reading...Celeste Amarilla called striker a ‘colonised Cameroonian’
French Football Federation to file criminal charges
France’s Kylian Mbappé has hit back at a Paraguayan senator, describing her as a “despicable woman” after she launched a racist attack on him. Mbappé’s penalty proved the difference in an ill-tempered match as France beat Paraguay 1-0 in Philadelphia on Saturday to advance to the quarter-finals.
Celeste Amarilla wrote a long tirade on X, describing Mbappé as a “colonised Cameroonian, desperately trying to pass himself off as French” and as a “brute who had not learned to write”. Paraguay’s players should have slapped him after the match, she added.
Continue reading...Democratic candidate for Senate, who has faced series of scandals, denies allegation reported by Politico
A woman has accused Graham Platner, the Democratic candidate for US Senate in Maine, of sexual assault, according to an exclusive report by Politico.
Jenny Racicot, 41, dated the oyster farmer former marine veteran and alleges he forced her to have sex despite repeated objections.
Continue reading...Despite ‘a setback that will hurt for eternity’, the co-hosts exit with heads held high after bringing pride, passion and soul
On Monday music pulsated from some of the bars on Calle Genova, a narrow thoroughfare in Mexico City’s heart that rarely lives in silence. The clock was yet to strike 11am, but, spilling out on to the street, a healthy crowd of patrons were picking up where they had left off. Perhaps they had never stopped at all. National team shirts were on full display and, had anyone lived under a news blackout for 15 hours, they may have drawn a wildly different conclusion about the previous night’s events.
The truth was more evident to anyone who, upon returning from Estadio Azteca, made a beeline for Paseo de la Reforma. Long after Mexico’s last-16 victory over Ecuador this vast boulevard had been teeming, an affirmative national moment bringing 1.4 million people on to the streets. But it was virtually empty three and a half hours after England had shattered the dreams of El Tri, the clean-up operation from the evening’s mass screening already in full swing and remaining revellers confined to the sidestreets.
Continue reading...
Creative Soup Branding & Character Design | Unauthorized Character Concepts Every branding project leaves behind ideas that never make it into the final release. This collection brings those concepts back to life. During the development of the Creative Soup visual identity, dozens of character explorations were created, tested and refined. While only a selected few became part of the final brand, many others helped define its personality, visual language and storytelling. Rather than presenting the approved identity, this project revisits the creative process through a series of unreleased character concepts?imagining what the Creative Soup universe could have looked like if different creative decisions had been made. Each design explores alternative personalities, silhouettes, color palettes and visual narratives while remaining faithful to the playful and expressive spirit of the brand.
Mr Mikage (ミスター御影） posted a photo:
ARLINGTON (ANP) - Europees kampioen Spanje heeft de kwartfinales bereikt van het WK voetbal. De ploeg van bondscoach Luis de la Fuente won in de achtste finales met 1-0 van Portugal. Invaller Mikel Merino maakte in het volgepakte Dallas Stadium in de eerste minuut van de blessuretijd de winnende treffer.
Spanje neemt het in de kwartfinale op tegen de winnaar van het duel tussen België en de Verenigde Staten, dat om 02.00 uur begint in de nacht van maandag op dinsdag.
Het was de 42e confrontatie tussen Spanje en Portugal, de buurlanden die tot de gastlanden behoren van het volgende WK in 2030. Spanje is de wereldkampioen van 2010, Portugal haalde nooit de finale op een WK. De derde plaats in 1966 blijft het beste resultaat.
Het was de 233e interland voor de Portugese vedette Cristiano Ronaldo. Het was zijn laatste WK-wedstrijd, na zes WK's.
Spanje kreeg vroeg in de wedstrijd een levensgrote kans op de 1-0, maar Mikel Oyarzabal schoot de bal in vrije scoringspositie naast. De Portugese doelman Diogo Costa behoedde kort daarna zijn ploeg voor een achterstand. Hij stopte eerst een inzet van Lamine Yamal en tikte daarna de bal na een uithaal van Álex Baena uit het doel.
Hoewel Spanje wat beter was en iets dreigender, kreeg Portugal ook kansen om te scoren. Ronaldo leverde een schot af dat stuitte op de handschoenen van de Spaanse doelman Unai Simón. De keeper moest ook ingrijpen bij een kopbal van João Félix en een soort van omhaal van Ronaldo. Een afstandsschot van Nuno Mendes ketste af op de lat.
Vroeg in de tweede helft raakte Mendes zodanig geblesseerd dat hij niet verder kon in de wedstrijd. Spanje profiteerde niet van het verdwijnen van de belangrijke Portugese linksback. Lamine Yamal kwam wel vaker door over de rechterflank, maar hij was slordig in het afgeven en afwerken.
In het laatste kwartier nam de druk van Spanje weer toe, maar de combinaties voorin leken geen doelpunt op te leveren. Tot de extra tijd. Die was nog maar net begonnen, of Ferran Torres vond Merino, die de bal hard in de touwen schoot. Bernardo Silva maakte vlak voor het eindsignaal nog bijna gelijk voor Portugal, maar zijn kopbal ging net over.
Microsoft is laying off about 4,800 employees, including 1,600 from Xbox, as it restructures around AI investments and tries to reset its struggling gaming business. "Our business is changing because the world around it is changing. The way technology is built, deployed, and used is transforming faster than at any point in my time here," said Amy Coleman, EVP and chief people officer at Microsoft. "Our customers' needs are shifting, the business models that serve them are shifting, and that means the work itself -- what we do, where we focus, and how we're organized -- has to transform too." She continued: "Companies don't get to choose whether their industry changes; they only get to choose whether they change with it. That means we will need to adjust resources and roles and shift how we operate so we can have the greatest impact for our customers." TechCrunch reports: Coleman stressed that the roles being eliminated today "are not being replaced by AI," but noted, "what is true is that AI is changing how work gets done." "Some of the tasks we do every day can now be automated, and that means we all need to keep learning, keep building new skills, and keep adapting as the work evolves," Coleman wrote. [...] Speaking about the Xbox layoffs, Coleman said little: "We are restructuring to position the business for long-term success. Engineering teams across the company will also evolve their structure and priorities to meet customer needs and innovate for the future."
Of today's 4,800 layoffs at Microsoft, 1,600 will hit Xbox, with about 3,200 cuts in total expected through fiscal year 2027, according to Asha Sharma, CEO of Xbox. In an email she sent to employees on Monday, Sharma called this "the most significant restructure in Xbox history." "Our business today is not healthy," Sharma wrote. "We are operating at margins that are 3-10x lower than comparable platform and publishing businesses." She added that Xbox made bets like its monthly subscription service Game Pass, alongside moves to grow its portfolio of content and invest in multi-platform, among other attempts to breathe life into the business. None of those strategies grew at the expected pace, leading to the core business weakening even as Xbox added more teams and investment. "And now the industry is facing the most severe hardware crisis in its history," Sharma said. "We must reset Xbox."
As part of the shift, Microsoft will transition four of its gaming studios to operate under new management, ensuring preservation of intellectual property and ongoing projects. Specifically Compulsion Games and Double Fine Productions will return to independent studios, according to Sharma. Ninja Theory and Undead Labs are coming under new ownership with funding to complete and grow some of their more popular games. According to Sharma's memo, Xbox is also flattening management hard, cutting the current 14 management layers to no more than five, but ideally three. As part of this major organization redesign, Xbox is making longtime executive Helen Chiang chief operating officer with end-to-end profit and loss authority across content, hardware, platform, and services. Xbox's restructuring plan centers around narrowing focus by dropping sprawling creative bets that don't produce platform-scale returns, and instead homing in on core strategic pillars like Mojang and King, the businesses behind Minecraft and Candy Crush.
Of today's 4,800 layoffs at Microsoft, 1,600 will hit Xbox, with about 3,200 cuts in total expected through fiscal year 2027, according to Asha Sharma, CEO of Xbox. In an email she sent to employees on Monday, Sharma called this "the most significant restructure in Xbox history." "Our business today is not healthy," Sharma wrote. "We are operating at margins that are 3-10x lower than comparable platform and publishing businesses." She added that Xbox made bets like its monthly subscription service Game Pass, alongside moves to grow its portfolio of content and invest in multi-platform, among other attempts to breathe life into the business. None of those strategies grew at the expected pace, leading to the core business weakening even as Xbox added more teams and investment. "And now the industry is facing the most severe hardware crisis in its history," Sharma said. "We must reset Xbox."
As part of the shift, Microsoft will transition four of its gaming studios to operate under new management, ensuring preservation of intellectual property and ongoing projects. Specifically Compulsion Games and Double Fine Productions will return to independent studios, according to Sharma. Ninja Theory and Undead Labs are coming under new ownership with funding to complete and grow some of their more popular games. According to Sharma's memo, Xbox is also flattening management hard, cutting the current 14 management layers to no more than five, but ideally three. As part of this major organization redesign, Xbox is making longtime executive Helen Chiang chief operating officer with end-to-end profit and loss authority across content, hardware, platform, and services. Xbox's restructuring plan centers around narrowing focus by dropping sprawling creative bets that don't produce platform-scale returns, and instead homing in on core strategic pillars like Mojang and King, the businesses behind Minecraft and Candy Crush.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
MeFi's own Maciej Cegłowski (Pinboard, Idle Words) has a new Substack newsletter, Mars For The Rest of Us, where he investigates "the prospects and practicalities of exploring Mars in our lifetime."
He's a Mars skeptic in a field full of (rocket) boosters, digging into the human physiology and life support problems that need to be solved before humans can make the years-long journey to Mars.
This includes serious investigation about space toilets, Italy's quest to make a decent espresso in space, and how antiperspirant fumes nearly triggered an ISS evacuation.
(Many of the posts are partially behind a newsletter paywall, but there's lots of great free space nerd content.)
(Many of the posts are partially behind a newsletter paywall, but there's lots of great free space nerd content.)
m01229 has added a photo to the pool:
Tokyo, Japan - April 14, 2026: Store advertising second-hand kimonos for sale in Kannon-dori shopping street in Tokyo Asakusa district