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A great Lebanese singer falls from horses and dies

A great Lebanese singer falls from horses and dies, Watch the video

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Will John Wick: Chapter 4 Bring In More Matrix Actors? Here’s What Chad Stahelski Says

ohn Wick: Chapter 2 introduced The Bowery King to this world of colourful criminals, giving Keanu Reeves another opportunity to work with Laurence Fishburne following their time together as Neo and Morpheus in the influential Matrix trilogy. Bowery King returned in this summer’s John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum and allied himself with the eponymous protagonist at the very end of the threequel, setting the stage for John Wick: Chapter 4 in 2021.

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source https://smilystore.com/2019/09/11/will-john-wick-chapter-4-bring-in-more-matrix-actors-heres-what-chad-stahelski-says/

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What are the damages of obesity and how to treat them?

Obesity is the accumulation of a large amount of adipose tissue within the body. Obesity can be determined simply by calculating the body mass index (BMI), Read More 

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source https://smilystore.com/2019/09/05/what-are-the-damages-of-obesity-and-how-to-treat-them/

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Detection of the biggest gang to counterfeit currency promoting and bank scamming in Europe

On May 28, 2019, a person named N.J from Romania has called a resident of Netherlands named A.R for sure there was an old acquaintance via the phone between the two parties, where A.D knows N.J by a friend named N.M Also a resident of Netherlands. he asked N.J and N.M permission to give the phone number of A.R For a person of Romanian nationality who is currently present in the Netherlands. Read More

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Southern California boat fire death toll jumps and several still missing

Santa Barbara, Calif. — A middle-of-the-night fire swept a boat carrying recreational scuba divers anchored near an island off the Southern California coast early Monday, leaving at least 25 dead and nine others missing.

Five of six crew members on the Conception escaped as the fire raged by jumping into an inflatable boat they steered to a nearby vessel.

Rescuers recovered four bodies about 90 miles northwest of Los Angeles just off Santa Cruz Island. The Coast Guard says five others were found but weren’t recovered due to unsafe conditions under the boat, which sank about 20 yards from shore.

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source https://smilystore.com/2019/09/03/southern-california-boat-fire-death-toll-jumps-and-several-still-missing/

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Jail sought for piano teacher who molested girl

Prosecutors are seeking 18 months’ jail for a piano teacher with autism who was 19 when he molested a five-year-old pupil in a studio where he worked.

The man, now 22, had slipped his hand into her underwear and told her “remember this”, and then scratched her, causing injuries that took two weeks to heal.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Gail Wong argued yesterday that while the offender was young, deterrence was the primary sentencing consideration as there was no causal link between his autism spectrum disorder and the offence.

“There was a real sexual motivation borne out of arousal; it was borne out of sexual intent,” she told the High Court.

The DPP did not seek caning. She noted that people with autism may have hyper-or hypo-sensitivity to sensory input, which could make caning a more disproportionate punishment for him.

The defence, on the other hand, pressed for probation, arguing that rehabilitation should be at the forefront for a young offender.

“If he was to go to jail, I don’t think he can survive,” said Mr Shashi Nathan, noting that the man’s parents have taken care of various aspects of his life.

Justice Pang Khang Chau adjourned the case to find out why the man had been exempted from national service.

The judge also asked for a report by a Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) psychologist to be shown to two psychiatrists who had earlier said there was a link between the man’s actions and his autism.

In the MSF report, the accused disclosed that he was fantasising about a pornographic scene while molesting the victim. He also admitted to watching pornography – which he had previously denied.

The man, who cannot be named owing to a gag order to protect the victim’s identity, pleaded guilty in April to a charge of molesting a person under the age of 14.

The court heard that he had started taking piano lessons from the owner of the studio in 2013.

After he completed his piano diploma and his GCE Normal (Academic)-level exams in 2015, his father arranged for him to teach piano part-time at the studio.

On Nov 7, 2016, while he was alone with the victim as usual during a lesson, he told her to sit properly.

He told her that he had to correct her posture while she was playing the piano, then slipped his hand inside her underwear and scratched her around her genital area.

She repeatedly uttered “ouch” and told him to stop, but he continued while apologising. The girl, who did not know her private parts should not be touched without her consent, did not tell her grandfather what happened when he came to pick her up.

At home, when she took an unusually long time in the toilet, her mother went to check on her and found her crying in pain.

The girl then revealed what her teacher had done to her, and her father called the police.

After the incident, the girl had several episodes of bed-wetting and was seeing a counsellor.

The DPP sought a compensation order of $7,000.

Mr Nathan said his client had no issue with paying for the victim’s counselling sessions.

However, he took issue with a victim impact statement submitted by the prosecution, in which the girl said she would not be able to enjoy her upcoming birthday if the man was not jailed.

Justice Pang agreed that while he had to know how the victim suffered, it was inappropriate to “exert emotional blackmail” on the court.

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source https://smilystore.com/2019/09/03/jail-sought-for-piano-teacher-who-molested-girl/

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What is human growth hormone and how it grows in the human body

HGH has been touted lately for its anti-ageing possibilities. The amount of HGH in our body peaks in our early 20’s and goes down drastically from that point. Many people are rejuvenating themselves, and swearing by the results, by increasing HGH into their system. Read More

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source https://smilystore.com/2019/09/02/what-is-human-growth-hormone-and-how-it-grows-in-the-human-body/

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What Are The Most Important Terms Of Internet Marketing For Business Success

This is a very difficult question to answer because there are many complex factors involved. Specifically, the technologies you use in your online marketing campaign and the implementation of these techniques can determine whether online marketing will work for you. Read More

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source https://smilystore.com/2019/09/01/what-are-the-most-important-terms-of-internet-marketing-for-business-success/

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End of the Turkish game in Syria

What you need to know about the Syria crisis

The Syrian conflict has created one of the worst humanitarian crises of our time. Over half of the country’s pre-war population — more than 12 million people — have been killed or forced to flee their homes. Read More

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source https://smilystore.com/2019/08/30/end-of-the-turkish-game-in-syria/

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The Black Widow trailer is full of back-to-back brutal fights

The film is set in Budapest, a key moment for Black Widow and Hawkeye.

The Black Widow movie is finally happening, and Marvel Studios co-president Kevin Feige brought an exclusive trailer to Disney’s D23 Expo, to prove it. Like the new Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker trailer, the Black Widow trailer hasn’t been posted online yet, but here’s what it looks like.

Feige debuted the trailer during Marvel’s segment of Disney’s big Studios panel. It opens with a montage of footage collected from various Marvel movies, including The Avengers, Avengers: Endgame, and Captain America: Civil War. It sets up Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow as a two-timing spy, relying on conversations between Tony Stark and Romanoff in the Civil War.

After the Avengers footage, the trailer travels to Budapest, which Clint Barton (Hawkeye) has periodically referenced in the Avengers movies as significant to Natasha’s history. There’s an amazing fight scene between Romanoff and a woman named Yelena Belova. Belova becomes the second Black Widow in the comics series and is referred to as Romanoff’s sister in the trailer. It’s a lengthy fight, with the combatants breaking plates on heads and dodging quick knife jabs. It’s reminiscent of the close-up fight scenes in Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

From there, the trailer opens up with a better tease of what to expect from the movie. Stranger Things’ David Harbour plays Red Guardian, a Soviet equivalent of Captain America. He’s seen interacting with Romanoff and the rest of the assassins he calls their “family.” They run around in white suits, but their goals are unclear.

The trailer ends with Black Widow battling the film’s main villain, Taskmaster. He has the incredible ability to mimic and replicate his opponents’ moves. This seems to hint that Black Widow will be full of intense fight scenes. It’s unclear when Marvel will release the trailer online. The last time Marvel Studios was at D23, Feige debuted the trailer for Avengers: Infinity War, which didn’t show up online for months.

Black Widow is a prequel to the events of Iron Man 2 and The Avengers, the first films that featured Natasha Romanoff. It will explore her life before she teamed up with a group of superheroes. Marvel Studios first announced it was giving Scarlett Johansson her own Black Widow movie in January 2018, after a years-long fan campaign highlighting the fact that Black Widow is one of the only original Avengers who doesn’t have her own movie. Even the Hulk, who is technically owned by Universal Pictures, and who Disney struck a deal with in order to use the character, has one movie in the MCU. Jeremy Renner’s Hawkeye also doesn’t have his own movie, but he’s getting a dedicated TV series on Disney+.

Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, and Chris Hemsworth all took multi-movie deals with Disney when they joined Marvel. Although Johansson reportedly asked for a stand-alone Black Widow movie for years, the company didn’t budge. It took more than 10 years of MCU movies to get to 2019’s Captain Marvel, Marvel Studios’ first film led by a female character.

Black Widow will be released on May 1, 2020.

By Julia Alexander

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source https://smilystore.com/2019/08/24/the-black-widow-trailer-is-full-of-back-to-back-brutal-fights/

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This wireless charging pad might do two-thirds of what AirPower promised

It’s been nearly five months since one of the all-time great Friday news dumps: On March 29th.

Apple abruptly canceled the AirPower wireless charging mat that would supposedly be able to charge your iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirPods simultaneously no matter where you placed them. But wireless charging firm Zens is betting it can do some of what Apple couldn’t by introducing the Zens Liberty.

Zens claims the Liberty uses a set of 16 overlapping wireless charging coils to let you charge your Qi-compatible devices from any spot on the mat just like AirPower was supposed to, though AirPower was rumored to have 21 to 24 coils. The Zens Liberty can charge two devices at once, unlike AirPower’s planned three, but it charges each at 15 watts, faster than most wireless chargers. Your Apple Watch may not work, by the way: none of Zens’ promotional materials show it on the charger.

Patent filings show what Apple’s AirPower charger might have looked like inside.

 Image: iFixit

We also don’t know if the Zens Liberty’s multi-coil design overcomes the engineering challenges that were rumored to have sunk AirPower, including overheating and possibly emitting signals more powerful than US or EU regulations would have allowed. If Apple couldn’t figure it out, I’m pretty skeptical Zens managed to do so.

If you’re willing to roll the dice on such a new product, though, Zens says the Zens Liberty will be available in two flavors this November: a $139.99 “Kvadrat edition,” which has a nice-looking fabric on top of the aluminum mat, and a $179.99 limited glass edition, which replaces the fabric with a pane of glass that lets you see the mat’s charging coils underneath.

For an AirPower alternative that’s available now, we recommend the Hard Cider Labs SliceCharge Pro, which, though it only has six charging coils, can charge two devices on the mat as well as an Apple Watch via an integrated watch charger

By Jay Peters 

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source https://smilystore.com/2019/08/24/this-wireless-charging-pad-might-do-two-thirds-of-what-airpower-promised/

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NASA’s BITSE Solar Scope Is Ready for Balloon Flight Over New Mexico

NASA and the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute, or KASI, are getting ready to test a new way to see the Sun, high over the New Mexico desert.

A balloon large enough to hug a football field is scheduled to take flight no earlier than Aug. 26, 2019, carrying beneath it a solar scope called BITSE. BITSE is a coronagraph, a kind of telescope that blocks the Sun’s bright face in order to reveal its dimmer atmosphere, called the corona. Short for Balloon-borne Investigation of Temperature and Speed of Electrons in the corona, BITSE seeks to explain how the Sun spits out the solar wind.

The solar wind is the stream of charged particles that constantly blows from the Sun’s outer atmosphere, washing over the entire solar system. While scientists generally know where it forms, exactly how it does so remains a mystery. But unlocking the nature of the solar wind is key to predicting how solar eruptions travel. The solar wind is a bit like a water slide: Its flow determines how a solar storm barrels through space. Sometimes, the storms crash into Earth’s magnetic field, sparking disturbances that can interfere with satellites and everyday communications systems like radio or GPS.

A collaboration between NASA and KASI, BITSE demonstrates a new way to study the solar wind. While standard coronagraphs capture the corona’s density, BITSE also measures the temperature and speed of electrons in the solar wind to help understand the powerful forces that accelerate them to speeds of 1 million miles per hour. BITSE’s balloon flight is a key step in the testing and development of this instrument and will help the team of scientists and engineers fine-tune their technology for future spaceflight.

“This is a coronagraph capable of measuring these three properties, all of which you need to understand how the solar wind is formed and accelerated,” said Nat Gopalswamy, BITSE principal investigator at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. By improving coronagraphs, BITSE furthers our understanding of the corona itself, the driving force behind the solar stuff that fills the space around Earth ultimately improving our ability to forecast weather in space.

Flying to the edge of the atmosphere 

Before launch, in the wee hours of the morning, technicians from NASA’s Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility’s field site in Fort Sumner, New Mexico, will ready the balloon for flight, partially filling the large plastic envelope with helium. The balloon is made of polyethylene — the same material grocery bags are made of and is about as thick as a plastic sandwich bag, but much stronger. As the balloon rises higher above the surface and atmosphere pressure drops, the gas in the balloon expands and it swells.

BITSE will meander upwards until it is some 22 miles above the ground. There, it will coast, taking pictures of the Sun’s seething hot atmosphere. By the end of the day, it will have collected as much as 64 gigabytes 40 feature-length movies’ worth of data.

BITSE’s journey to the sky began with an eclipse. Coronagraphs work by mimicking eclipses; like the Moon, a metal disk called an occulter blocks the Sun, bringing the corona into the spotlight. During the Aug. 21, 2017, total solar eclipse, Gopalswamy, and his team tested key parts of the instrument in Madras, Oregon. In just two minutes of totality, they took 50 images and demonstrated the challenges and advantages of utilizing their instrument’s particular technique.

Now, the team is no longer limited to hurried research in the Moon’s shadow. A balloon will take their instrument to the edge of the atmosphere, where it will fly for at least six hours. Balloons offer a low-cost way to access this region, allowing scientists to make measurements and perform tests they can’t from the ground. There, BITSE can collect its images with much less background light than from the ground, which interferes with observations of the dim corona.

A new type of coronagraph

Team member Nelson Reginald examines the BITSE instrument in the lab where it was built, at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. BITSE is a coronagraph, a kind of telescope that blocks the Sun’s bright face in order to reveal its dimmer atmosphere.

Credits: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Joy Ng

BITSE combines several important technologies. First, the instrument is constructed with a single occulting stage. Then, there’s a special camera that captures polarized light light waves that bob in certain directions. Scientists use these photos to map out electron density, or how many electrons are in the corona and where.

Typical coronagraphs use a wheel that cycles through polarizer filters each oriented to different angles and combine the images to get the polarized light. BITSE’s polarization camera analyzes the observations pixel by pixel, making the process more reliable by reducing the number of moving parts.

“We glued the entire sheet of micro-polarizers on top of the camera detector, so we don’t need the polarization wheel,” said Qian Gong, BITSE lead optics engineer at Goddard.

BITSE also has a filter wheel, which blocks out all the corona’s light except for four specific wavelengths. The ratios of these different wavelengths provide scientists with the temperature and speed of electrons in the corona measurements they can’t obtain from the ground, even during an eclipse. By focusing on a previously unstudied slice of the corona that is key to solar wind formation, the scientists hope to gather new clues to its origins. One day, a version of BITSE could make these measurements from space, extending their observation time from hours to months.

More than 22 miles above the surface, BITSE will drift high above the realm of birds, airplanes, weather, and the blue sky itself. The altitude presents unique challenges, Gong said. Certain design elements are specific to a balloon flight, like BITSE’s temperature-sensitive optics. An onboard thermal system will ensure BITSE doesn’t get too cold during its ascent. Even the glue they used on the polarization filters was carefully selected both to provide good adhesive and withstand the expected temperatures. A shift of just a few microns an average human hair is 75 microns across in response to the chilly upper atmosphere could impact their data, she explained, since each pixel is 7.5 microns wide.

At such high altitudes, the sky is dimmer; where the atmosphere is thin, there are few air particles to scatter light. Compared to the ground, these are much better conditions for a coronagraph. Still, the edge of the atmosphere is brighter than space.

“The sky brightness fundamentally limits what we can see, and drives our need to go to the next step: observations from space,” Goddard solar scientist Jeff Newmark said. Together, Gopalswamy and Newmark are leading the team sending BITSE to the sky, one step closer to space, where there’s no interfering background light.

A true collaborative mission, BITSE features extensive contributions from both NASA and KASI. NASA provided the main optical, mechanical, pointing, communications, and gondola assemblies, as well as overall management and launch of the mission, while KASI provided the filter wheel, instrument computer, and camera system, among other contributions.

Lofty goals

At the end of BITSE’s flight, technicians at the Fort Sumner field site will send termination commands, kicking off a sequence that separates the instrument and balloon, deploys the instrument’s parachute, and punctures the balloon. An airplane circling overhead will keep watch over the balloon’s final moments, and relay BITSE’s location. Hours later, far from where it started, the coronagraph will parachute to the ground. A crew will drive into the desert to recover both the balloon and BITSE at the end of the day.

Data from BITSE’s flight will be useful for the models that scientists use to predict space weather. But the team will be looking to the flight to validate BITSE’s design and performance in a near-space environment. From their field campaign observing the Aug. 2017 solar eclipse to this year’s balloon flight and eventually, spaceflight, the team has continued to set their sights ever higher.

By Nasa

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NASA’s AIRS Maps Carbon Monoxide from Brazil Fires

This time series shows carbon monoxide associated with fires from the Amazon region in Brazil from Aug. 8-22, 2019. Made with data collected from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite, the images map carbon monoxide at approximately 18,000 feet (5,500 meters) altitude. Each “day” in the series is made by averaging three day’s-worth of measurements.

Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Full image and caption

New data from NASA’s Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument, aboard the Aqua satellite, shows the movement high in the atmosphere of carbon monoxide associated with fires in the Amazon region of Brazil.

This time series maps carbon monoxide at an altitude of 18,000 feet (5,500 meters) from Aug. 8-22, 2019. As the series progresses, the carbon monoxide plume grows in the northwest Amazon region then drifts in a more concentrated plume toward the southeastern part of the country.

Each “day” in the series is made by averaging three days’ worth of measurements, a technique used to eliminate data gaps. Green indicates concentrations of carbon monoxide at approximately 100 parts per billion by volume (ppbv); yellow, at about 120 ppbv; and dark red, at about 160 ppbv. Local values can be significantly higher.

A pollutant that can travel large distances, carbon monoxide can persist in the atmosphere for about a month. At the high altitude mapped in these images, the gas has little effect on the air we breathe; however, strong winds can carry it downward to where it can significantly impact air quality. Carbon monoxide plays a role in both air pollution and climate change.

AIRS, in conjunction with the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU), senses emitted infrared and microwave radiation from Earth to provide a three-dimensional look at Earth’s weather and climate. With more than 2,000 channels sensing different regions of the atmosphere, the instruments create a global, three-dimensional map of atmospheric temperature and humidity, cloud amounts and heights, greenhouse gas concentrations and many other atmospheric phenomena.

The AIRS and AMSU instruments are managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, under contract to NASA. JPL is a division of Caltech.

More information about AIRS can be found at:

By Nasa

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source https://smilystore.com/2019/08/24/nasas-airs-maps-carbon-monoxide-from-brazil-fires/

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Salah double seals easy win for Reds

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp says his side “do not need to excite everyone in every second” after a comfortable victory over Arsenal maintained their place at the top of the Premier League.

The Reds also preserved their 100% start to the Premier League season as Mohamed Salah scored twice to add to Joel Matip’s first-half header in a dominant performance at Anfield.

“It was a performance full of power, energy, greed, and passion, which I think you need against a team like Arsenal,” Klopp told Sky Sports.

“The last 10 minutes I saw the possession – 53 to 47% or something like that – but over 80 minutes it must have been completely different. We were completely in charge of the game.

“We are not Disneyland, we do not need to excite everyone in every second.”

The Gunners, the only other side in the top flight to win their first two games, had opportunities to shock Liverpool in a tight first half, especially when record £72m signing Nicolas Pepe shot straight at keeper Adrian after running clear.

Liverpool took control when Matip put them ahead with a powerful header from Trent Alexander-Arnold’s corner four minutes before the interval.

And any hopes manager Unai Emery had of watching his side mount a recovery were snuffed out in the 49th minute after a moment of madness from new signing David Luiz, who needlessly dragged Salah back in the area.

Liverpool’s Egyptian attacker drilled home the penalty and then embarrassed Luiz again out on the touchline at the start of a dazzling run that ended with a low, curling finish into the bottom corner just before the hour.

Arsenal substitute Lucas Torreira pulled one back late on, but nothing was getting in the way of Liverpool’s 12th successive league victory, equalling their best sequence in the top flight under Kenny Dalglish between April and October 1990.

Liverpool back in the old routine

Liverpool had moments when they stuttered against Southampton and their defense has looked unusually fallible – but this was a movie we have seen many times before at Anfield under Jurgen Klopp.

Arsenal has suffered badly here in recent seasons, losing 5-1 last season and 4-0 in Arsene Wenger’s final season. Once again, despite taking their time to hit top gear, Liverpool’s ruthlessness and intensity simply proved too much for Arsenal.

True, they gratefully accepted Luiz’s gifts but once Matip put Liverpool ahead the pressure and intensity applied to Arsenal were simply too much for the Gunners to resist.

And, as Arsenal discovered, when you fail to take chances to punish Liverpool, the inevitable outcome is that you will be punished yourselves.

Liverpool does not simply have a prodigious work ethic that makes life permanently uncomfortable for opponents; they also have world-class attacking options as illustrated by Salah’s brilliant weaving run and slide-rule finish for their third.

Klopp’s side missed out on the title by a single point despite only one loss, to champions Manchester City, last season – and three wins from three has quickly put the marker down that they intend to go one better and claim that first title in 30 years.

Liability Luiz kills Arsenal chances

Luiz has a track record of success that suggests he may be able to bring moments of quality to Arsenal’s defense after his surprise £8m move from Chelsea – but there is no escaping he has the enduring capability to be a complete liability.

The Brazilian, at 32, is not going to change and so it proved as he delivered a moment of crass stupidity that killed stone dead Arsenal’s hopes of taking anything away from Anfield.

It is a stretch to say Arsenal had Liverpool on the ropes but, despite the overall domination of the European champions, the Gunners certainly had moments of threat through the pace and menace of Pepe and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. They would have started the second half with hope.

Luiz made it all count for nothing when he felt his best method of dealing with Salah’s 49th-minute raid into the penalty area was to blatantly drag him back by the shirt in a red-mist moment that did not even seriously require the intervention of the video assistant referee.

Salah, despite some ludicrous protests from Luiz, drilled home the penalty before taking him to cleaners when scoring Liverpool’s brilliant third.

Too much of the Arsenal’s playing out from the back was asking for trouble against this Liverpool side. Throw in the act of stupidity from Luiz and ultimately they got what they deserved, despite some areas for Emery to admire.

“We were doing some transitions very good and we had some chances but, in the second half, the penalty was very soft,” Emery told BBC Match of the Day. #

“After 2-0 our reaction was good. We needed to attack and take a different moment in the match. We are disappointed we lost 3-1 but watching some players we can be optimistic.

“We need to improve in the possession and countering the pressure but Liverpool is the best team with this. We have to be realistic but we can fight closer to them.”

Man of the match – Mohamed Salah (Liverpool)

Salah scored 22 league goals for Liverpool last term and has picked up where he left off

Arsenal’s Liverpool woe – the stats

Since Jurgen Klopp took over in October 2015, Liverpool has scored 26 goals in eight Premier League games against Arsenal – the most one side has netted against another in the competition in that period.

Only Everton at Arsenal (64) has conceded more away goals against a single opponent in the Premier League than Arsenal at Liverpool (62).

Arsenal has now failed to win any of their last 23 away league games against fellow ‘Big six’ sides (D8 L15) – during this run, they have conceded 53 goals while keeping just one clean sheet.

Since the start of last season, Arsenal has given away eight Premier League penalties – only Brighton (10) have faced more.

Liverpool have scored 22 headed goals in the Premier League since the start of last season; seven more than any other side. The Reds have scored three in this campaign already, while no other side has scored more than one.

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has faced Arsenal eight times without defeat in the Premier League (W5 D3).

Mohamed Salah has been directly involved in more Premier League goals against Arsenal than against any other side (eight; six goals and two assists). He has scored in all four of his home games against them.

Trent Alexander-Arnold has assisted nine goals in his past 10 appearances at Anfield for Liverpool in all competitions, including assisting once in each of his past five competitive home games.

Nicolas Pepe has become the first player to successfully dribble past Virgil van Dijk in the Dutch defender’s past 50 appearances in the Premier League, since Mikel Merino in March 2018 for Newcastle.

What’s next?

Liverpool travels to Burnley in their next Premier League fixture on Saturday, 31 August (17:30 BST). Arsenal resume league action when they host Tottenham in the first north London derby of the season, on Sunday, 1 September (16:30 BST).

By Phil McNulty

The post Salah double seals easy win for Reds appeared first on smilystore.

source https://smilystore.com/2019/08/24/salah-double-seals-easy-win-for-reds/

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Amazon fires: Fines for environmental crimes drop under Bolsonaro

The record number of fires in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest has coincided with a sharp drop in fines for environmental violations, BBC analysis has found.

Official data from Brazil’s environment agency shows fines from January to 23 August dropped almost a third compared with the same period last year.

At the same time, the number of fires burning in Brazil has increased by 84%.

It is not known how many of these fires have been set deliberately, but critics have accused President Jair Bolsonaro’s administration of “green lighting” the destruction of the rainforest through a culture of impunity.

Mr. Bolsonaro has sent in the military to help put out the fires after coming under pressure from the international community, saying he wanted to “help protect” the Amazon.

The largest rainforest in the world, the Amazon is a vital carbon store that slows down the pace of global warming. It is known as the “lungs of the world” and is home to about three million species of plants and animals and one million indigenous people.

What does the data show?

Analysis by BBC Brasil shows the number of fines handed out by the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama) for environmental violations has dropped significantly since Mr. Bolsonaro took office on 1 January.

Why has there been a drop?

Neither Ibama nor the ministry of the environment answered the BBC’s queries about the figures.

Mariangélica de Almeida, a professor of environmental law who has defended clients over unfair fines, suggested to BBC Brasil that the figures for previous years could have reflected a culture of over-fining, in order to meet goals.

However, others have pointed the finger directly at Mr. Bolsonaro, who has scorned environmental activists and declared his support for clearing areas of the Amazon for agriculture and mining.

Elisabeth Uma, who retired from Ibama last year, said it was clear even before Mr. Bolsonaro was elected that he did not like Ibama. During his campaign, he pledged to limit fines for damaging the rainforest and to weaken the influence of the environmental agency.

The message was further underlined in April when Mr. Bolsonaro ordered an investigation into officials who burned tractors and trucks belonging to loggers who were allegedly involved in illegal activities in the Jamari National Forest. This was a long-held policy seen as a deterrent against illegal loggers.

The agency’s work, she said, had also been hampered by the fact that just eight of its 27 offices across the country now had a permanent head.

“The usual inspections, which had been planned since 2018, are happening. But little beyond that,” Ms. Uema, now the executive secretary of Ascema Nacional, the body representing Ibama employees, told BBC Brasil.

Critics of the Bolsonaro administration insist the drop in fines does not mean fewer crimes against the environment are being committed.

Staying true to his word

Analysis by Luis Barrucho, BBC Brasil

The decline in the number of environmental fines at a time when Brazil has seen a spike in deforestation does not seem a coincidence to many.

During last year’s presidential race, Mr. Bolsonaro vowed to open up the Amazon for commercial activity. When he was sworn in, he stayed true to his word.

Many of his critics say that Mr. Bolsonaro operates a double standard when it comes to addressing environmental crimes, most of which remain unpunished. After all, the president promised a tough stance on criminal activity.

Now, in the face of national and international pressure, Mr. Bolsonaro appears to have changed his tone and finally adopted measures to battle the fires.

But he still hasn’t acknowledged the link between the fires and the increase in deforestation in Brazil this year. And in a televised address on Friday, he reinforced his plans to bring “economic dynamism” to the Amazon.

The question now is whether Mr. Bolsonaro’s recent moves in fighting the fires will be accompanied by a consistent change in his environmental policies.

Why does this matter?

Environmental activists have drawn links between Mr. Bolsonaro’s attitudes towards the environment and the recent surge in the number of fires in the Amazon rainforest.

Satellite data published by the National Institute for Space Research (Inpe) has shown an increase of 85% this year in fires across Brazil, most of them in the Amazon region.

Mr. Bolsonaro initially brushed it off, arguing that it was the season of the “queimada”, when farmers burn land to clear it before planting.

The president has also previously questioned data from Brazil’s National Space Research Institute which showed an 88% increase in deforestation in June compared with the same month a year ago.

But Inpe has noted that the number of fires is not in line with those normally reported during the dry season.

Wildfires often occur in the dry season in Brazil but they are also deliberately started in efforts to illegally deforest land for cattle ranching.

Whether there will now be a spike in fines remains to be seen.

What is being done to fight the fires?

On Friday, Mr. Bolsonaro confirmed that he had authorized the armed forces to help fight the fires. “I’ve learned as a military man to love the Amazon forest and I want to help protect it,” he said.

The decree itself was fairly vague in its wording but specified that the military would be deployed to nature reserves, indigenous lands and border areas in the region.

Brazil’s defense minister said a helicopter and two airplanes had already been deployed to the Amazon to help identify fire outbreaks and to carry equipment and military personnel.

The announcement came after the international community began to exert pressure on Mr. Bolsonaro.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson have called the fires an international crisis.

France and Ireland have also said they will not ratify a large trade deal with South American nations and Finland’s finance minister has called on the EU to consider banning Brazilian beef imports.

Both Ms. Merkel and Mr. Macron said the issue must be discussed at this weekend’s G7 summit in Biarritz, France.

By BBC

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Old Video Of David Letterman Challenging Donald Trump Over China-Made Ties Goes Viral

“Rarely do you see Donald Trump caught without something to say,” said MSNBC’s Ari Melber, who shared the 2012 clip.

A 2012 video of David Letterman challenging Donald Trump over his ties being made in China is going viral after the president on Friday ordered U.S. companies to sever business links with the country.

In the clip, the then-late night TV host responded to the then-businessman bashing the Obama administration’s China policy by informing Trump that his ties were actually made there.

“Rarely do you see Donald Trump caught without something to say. Silence,” said MSNBC’s Ari Melber, who shared the clip on “The Beat.”

“To paraphrase Springsteen, ‘to face the ties that bind, you can’t break the ties that bind’ and Donald Trump is tied up with an order he can’t enforce against other companies, an order he never bothered to apply to his own company,” he added.

The footage spread on Twitter as people accused Trump of hypocrisy.

Check out the clip here:

By Lee Moran

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European Council President Warns EU Will Retaliate If Donald Trump Taxes French Wine

Donald Tusk said there would be consequences if the U.S. president went through with his tariff threat against France.

European Council President Donald Tusk warned Saturday that the European Union will retaliate if President Donald Trump pushes forward with his threatened tariff on French wine, further ratcheting up global trade tensions.

“For me it’s absolutely clear that if someone, for example … the United States and President Trump, uses tariffs and taxation as a political instrument, tool for some different political reasons, it means that this confrontation can be really risky for the whole world, including the EU,” Tusk said in Biarritz, France, where world leaders are meeting for the annual G-7 summit, The Washington Post reported.

“If the U.S. imposes tariffs on France, the EU will [respond] in kind,” he added.

In July, France passed a controversial 3% tax on American tech giants including Amazon, Facebook, and Google, all three of which are being investigated by the European Commission for potential antitrust violations.

In response, at Trump’s behest, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer opened an investigation into whether the tax “unfairly targets American companies” and “is discriminatory or unreasonable and burdens or restricts United States commerce.”

Before leaving for the G-7 conference on Friday, Trump told reporters that although he’s “not a big fan of the tech companies,” he doesn’t “want France going out and taxing our companies.”

“Very unfair,” he said. “And if they do that, we’ll be taxing their wine or doing something else. We’ll be taxing their wine like they’ve never seen before.”

By Amy Russo

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