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justforbooks · 2 years

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John Motson: The unmistakable voice of football known simply as ‘Motty’

John Motson, who has died aged 77, was BBC television’s “voice” of football for almost half a century, commentating for Match of the Day from 1971 until his retirement in 2018 and becoming affectionately known as “Motty”.

“I remember my first game, Liverpool against Chelsea,” he recalled. “They kicked off and my heart sank because I thought, ‘What do I say now?’ I still remember the feeling. I realised I had a lot of work to do.”

Alongside the energy and passion he brought to the game, that work was evident in his trademark style of reeling off statistics written on an A4 sheet of card in felt-tip pen for each match. Motson put this “obsession” for facts and figures down to being “terrified of not knowing enough or making a mistake” in his early days. He admitted to “overdosing” on it, and gradually used less background information in his commentaries.

Nevertheless, his filing system continued to grow – as did his library of more than 500 football record books. On top of the stats, he displayed an eloquence for describing the occasion. When Liverpool were beaten 0-1 in the 1988 FA Cup final by the unfancied Wimbledon – known for the eccentric behaviour of their players and fans – he spontaneously summed up: “The Crazy Gang has beaten the Culture Club.”

Earlier, at the end of the 1977 FA Cup final, when Manchester United – captained by Martin Buchan – beat Liverpool 2-1, Motson must have been silently thrilled that it enabled him to put his research into action and say: “How fitting that a man called Buchan should be the first to ascend the 39 steps to the royal box”, recalling “ The Thirty-Nine Steps” celebrated spy novel by John Buchan.

His ability to remember every detail of each game he covered also made Motson ideal company away from the pitch. If, for example, he was asked about a Division One Southampton v Birmingham City match at the Dell in the 1973-74 season, he would not only recall the result and those booked, but describe in detail Peter Osgood’s perm and the pattern made by a set of studs on a shin.

However, he was not averse to the occasional “Colemanballs”, emulating the verbal gaffes of his fellow football commentator David Coleman, who was presenter of Match of the Day by the time he started on it himself. Among Motson’s were: “The World Cup is truly an international event”, “The goals made such a difference to the way this game went”, and “For those of you watching in black-and-white, Spurs are in the yellow strip”.

In his long career commentating on more than 2,500 televised games, Motson covered nine World Cups (1974-2006), 29 FA Cup finals (1977-2007, missing just two) and nine European Championships (1976-2008).

He stepped back from his position as the BBC’s lead commentator in 2008, saying he had thought about the forthcoming World Cup in South Africa two years later and “just didn’t feel quite up for it”. His last live commentary was the Euro 2008 final, with Spain beating Germany 1-0 in Vienna.

However, he continued commentating both for football highlights on Match of the Day and for BBC Radio 5 Live until 2018. His final TV commentary was for the Premier League match between Crystal Palace and West Bromwich Albion.

Motson’s standing meant that he became part of the impersonator Rory Bremner’s repertoire of characters, complete with the sheepskin coats that became another of his trademarks on screen after he reached for one when horizontal sleet started falling during an FA Cup tie at Wycombe Wanderers’ ground in 1990.

He had them made to measure in Savile Row, central London, able to afford them on an income that he said gave him security after growing up in a family where his father’s income was “very modest”.

John was born in Salford, which was then in Lancashire, to Gwendoline (nee Harrison) and William Motson, a Methodist minister, brought up in London and educated at Culford school, near Bury St Edmonds, in Suffolk.

His father took him to a Charlton Athletic football match when he was six and, spending childhood holidays in Lincolnshire, his mother’s home county, he supported the non-League team Boston United.

As a teenager, Motson played the game himself in the Barnet Sunday League, as well as becoming a Barnet and Potters Bar youth table-tennis champion.

On leaving school, he began his career in journalism as a reporter on the Barnet Press in 1963. He then moved to the Sheffield Morning Telegraph (1967-68), where he started covering football, qualified as an FA preliminary coach and freelanced for BBC Radio Sheffield.

In 1968, he moved to BBC Radio Sport in London and was first heard nationally as presenter of Radio 4’s Saturday-evening after-match Sports Session (1969-70) before commentating on live matches for Radio 2 (1969-71).

He switched to television and Match of the Day in 1971 following Kenneth Wolstenholme’s departure – becoming TV’s youngest football commentator, aged 26.

Motson found himself describing the disaster at the Hillsborough stadium in Sheffield for the 1989 FA Cup semi-final between Nottingham Forest and Liverpool, which resulted in the deaths of 97 Liverpool fans.

During three seasons from 2001 when the BBC lost rights to Premier League highlights to ITV, Motson commentated for Radio 5 Live. On leaving the BBC in 2018, Motson commentated for talkSPORT, as well as appearing regularly as a pundit on the commercial radio station’s football shows.

Ten years earlier, reflecting on the influence of money in football, he had observed: “It’s true that the game has changed so much, and in many ways not for the better, but it is still the game. It is still beautiful and it still has the power, as few others things, to move nations and continents and, every four years, the world.”

Motson, whose autobiography, Motty: 40 Years in the Commentary Box, was published in 2009, was named the Royal Television Society’s commentator of the year in 2004 and won a Bafta special award in 2018. He was made OBE in 2001.

In 1976 he married Anne Jobling, and she survives him, with their son, Frederick.

🔔 John Walker Motson, football commentator, born 10 July 1945; died 23 February 2023

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at http://justforbooks.tumblr.com

#JUST FOR BOOKS #John Motson #Motty #in memoriam

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dailyunsolvedmysteries · 2 years

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Globe-trotting botanists beaten to death and fed to crocodiles

Rod Saunders, 74, and his wife Rachel, 63, were attacked in eastern KwaZulu-Natal province four years ago as they searched for wild seeds to sell via their worldwide mail-order business.

The couple were killed shortly after they were interviewed for an episode of the BBC’s Gardeners’ World program and pictures taken of them with Nick Bailey, its presenter, are said to be the last photographs of them before they disappeared while searching for rare gladioli seeds in the Drakensberg mountains in February 2018.

Sayefundeen Aslam Del Vecchio, 39, his wife Bibi Fatima Patel, 28, and their lodger at the time, Mussa Ahmad Jackson, 35, appeared at Durban High Court, where they have denied kidnapping, murder, robbery and theft.

Rod Saunders and his wife, a trained microbiologist, were co-owners of Silverhill Seeds, a Cape Town company that sold seeds and books. They spent months each year scouring remote mountains and forests in the country for specimens.

The couple, who had been married for more than 30 years, left their Cape Town home in their Toyota Land Cruiser on Feb 5, to meet a BBC crew 900 miles away in the mountains. After being interviewed by Bailey, they headed off to camp by a dam in a remote forest. Employees of Sliverhill Seeds said they had last been in contact with them on Feb 8.

Around Feb 10 the investigating officer received information that Rodney Saunders and his wife, Dr. Rachel Saunders, from Cape Town, had been kidnapped in the Kwa-Zulu Natal region… it was established, on Feb 13, that the defendants were drawing money from various ATMs, which amounted to theft of R734,000 and there was the robbery of the Saunders’ Land Cruiser and of camping equipment.”

The couple are believed to have been killed between Feb 10 and Feb 15 in the Ngoye Forest, north of Duban which is on South Africa’s east coast.

Mussa Ahmad Jackson made a statement alleging that he was woken by his co-accused, Patel, at their home on Feb 10 and that he was told to meet Del Vecchio, the third defendant, on the road. “Del Vecchio in the Land Cruiser and Patel and Jackson followed to the Tugela River Bridge where they helped him remove sleeping bags from the back of the Toyota and they threw them, with human bodies inside, into the river.”

The badly decomposed and partially eaten bodies of the victims were found days later by fishermen.

At first they were not linked to the missing couple but months later police, who could find no trace of the missing couple, ordered all unidentified or unclaimed bodies to undergo DNA tests and the Saunders’ bodies were identified.

Del Vecchio and Patel were arrested at home in Endlovini, 30 miles from the Ngoye Forest, after police allegedly linked their mobile phones to phones that belonged to the murder victims.

The trial continues.

#rod saunders #rachel saunders #true crime #crime #murder

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brookstonalmanac · 11 months

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Events 10.29 (after 1950)

1953 – BCPA Flight 304 DC-6 crashes near San Francisco. 1955 – The Soviet battleship Novorossiysk strikes a World War II mine in the harbor at Sevastopol. 1956 – Suez Crisis begins: Israeli forces invade the Sinai Peninsula and push Egyptian forces back toward the Suez Canal. 1957 – Israel's prime minister David Ben-Gurion and five of his ministers are injured when Moshe Dwek throws a grenade into the Knesset. 1960 – An airplane carrying the Cal Poly football team crashes on takeoff in Toledo, Ohio. 1964 – The United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar is renamed to the United Republic of Tanzania. 1964 – Biggest jewel heist; involving the Star of India (gem) in the American Museum of Natural History in New York City by Murph the Surf and gang. 1967 – Montreal's World Fair, Expo 67, closes with over 50 million visitors. 1969 – The first-ever computer-to-computer link is established on ARPANET, the precursor to the Internet. 1972 – The three surviving perpetrators of the Munich massacre are released from prison in exchange for the hostages of the hijacked Lufthansa Flight 615. 1980 – Demonstration flight of a secretly modified C-130 for an Iran hostage crisis rescue attempt ends in a crash landing at Eglin Air Force Base's Duke Field, Florida, leading to the cancellation of Operation Credible Sport. 1985 – Major General Samuel K. Doe is announced as the winner of the first multi-party election in Liberia. 1986 – British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher opens the last stretch of the M25 motorway. 1991 – The American Galileo spacecraft makes its closest approach to 951 Gaspra, becoming the first probe to visit an asteroid. 1994 – Francisco Martin Duran fires over two dozen shots at the White House; he is later convicted of trying to kill U.S. President Bill Clinton. 1998 – In South Africa, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission presents its report, which condemns both sides for committing atrocities. 1998 – Space Shuttle Discovery blasts off on STS-95 with 77-year-old John Glenn on board, making him the oldest person to go into space at that time. 1998 – ATSC HDTV broadcasting in the United States is inaugurated with the launch of the STS-95 space shuttle mission. 1998 – While en route from Adana to Ankara, a Turkish Airlines flight with a crew of six and 33 passengers is hijacked by a Kurdish militant who orders the pilot to fly to Switzerland. The plane instead lands in Ankara after the pilot tricked the hijacker into thinking that he is landing in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia to refuel. 1998 – Hurricane Mitch, the second deadliest Atlantic hurricane in history, makes landfall in Honduras. 1998 – The Gothenburg discothèque fire in Sweden kills 63 and injures 200. 1999 – A large cyclone devastates Odisha, India. 2002 – A fire destroys a luxurious department store in Ho Chi Minh City, where 1,500 people are shopping. More than 60 people die and over 100 are unaccounted for in the deadliest peacetime disaster in Vietnam. 2004 – The Arabic-language news network Al Jazeera broadcasts an excerpt from a 2004 Osama bin Laden video in which the terrorist leader first admits direct responsibility for the September 11, 2001 attacks and references the 2004 U.S. presidential election. 2005 – Bombings in Delhi, India kill more than 60. 2008 – Delta Air Lines merges with Northwest Airlines, creating the world's largest airline and reducing the number of US legacy carriers to five. 2008 – A pair of deadly earthquakes hits Baluchistan, Pakistan, killing 215. 2012 – Hurricane Sandy hits the east coast of the United States, killing 148 directly and 138 indirectly, while leaving nearly $70 billion in damages and causing major power outages. 2014 – A mud slide; the 2014 Badulla landslide, in south-central Sri Lanka, kills at least 16 people, and leaves hundreds of people missing. 2015 – China announces the end of its one-child policy after 35 years. 2018 – A Boeing 737 MAX plane crashes after taking off from Jakarta, Indonesia killing 189 people on board.

#Events

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ihopesocomic · 2 years

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im loving this series and i have a few questions about the thought process behind it,unfortunately some of my questions overlap with My Pride though.

how much was this series "inspired" by My Pride? did it start off as a sort of fix-it-fic that you realized had merit enough to be its own thing?

if that's the case, how many things in IHS are sort of parallels to things in My Pride, such as the protag's naming situation, a butch lesbian love interest for the protag, etc.

if Hope was indeed "based on" Nothing, what made you decide to make her disability a birth defect instead of a result of trauma?

i dont mean any of these questions to demean the originality of IHS btw. but now for more lighthearted questions

4) you said before that there will be humans in this series, i believe. are you worried about it being kind of a Warrior Cats situation where everyone's like "why are humans studying the beavers instead of the cats that reached the agricultural revolution and practice organized religion"

5) are all animals as anthro as the lions and hyenas appear to be? sorry if this is splitting hairs, im just curious if that's part of the worldbuilding. do the zebras have their own society going on?

6) theres a couple lions other than Diamond in the mountain/forest/whatever pride that appear to be physically disabled, such as one seemingly blind in one eye and one missing a leg. is this pride just way bigger than the golden grove pride so the amount of disabled lions is proportional, is the territory just more dangerous leading to more injuries, or is the pride like a safe haven that disabled travelers end up staying?

sorry for all the questions or any typos. keep up the great work

The comic started off as an AU where we were going to merge some characters together and take the story in the direction that we personally felt would've benefited it. Not really fixing it because that's pretty presumptuous but just where we wanted it to go.

I wouldn't describe these things as "parallels" because My Pride doesn't own such broad tropes? In fact, it pretty much lifted these tropes from Warrior Cats but some MP fans try and pretend that never happened lol. The only similarity we opted for was the disabled protagonist and, even then, we tried to make her differ from Nothing as much as possible. Hope and Storm were also based on MP OCs who were in a gay relationship that we had already and we naturally weren't gonna change that. Especially since Cat is a butch lesbian and deserves to be able to represent herself through her characters without MP fans insisting that MP copyrights butch lesbians all of a sudden and Hover was such a bad stereotype anyway. Storm's original design also actually came about in 2018, about a year or so before Hover's design was revealed so some similarities are just coincidental because MP's character designs are generic af and making similar looking characters is unavoidable.

We made that change because we wanted to show how a disability can be part of somebody as opposed to a tragedy in their life that hangs over them like it was in MP. Not saying that this is how these kinds of things are always handled in disability media as a whole but we just wanted to handle the disability theme differently from how MP handled it. We also didn't want Hope and Nothing to be viewed as the same character so giving Hope entirely different circumstances was essential for developing her as we have done. As much as I wanna hug Nothing: that's the whole point? We spend the whole series feeling sorry for her because of what happened to her and we didn't want Hope to fall into the same pattern.

No, because we've already established that the lions fear humans and keep well away from them. Even in situations where they could be present like with the Tigress, the irl situation regarding the tigers in South Africa is that their keepers interact with them as little as possible as they are wild tigers destined to be released back into the wilds of China. Also, I think our lion's philosophical beliefs aren't as obvious to the naked eye as large colonies of cats having a monthly ritual under the moon. lol

It could be argued that all the animals have their own societies going on, yep. Africa is a webcomic by ARVEN92 that explores this kind of thing. We're just personally not going in that direction because it's not important to the plot and it's also too much to develop societies for every single critter out there. lol

All of the above? The territory is slightly more dangerous than the Golden Grove due to it being based around an abandoned mine, so there are shafts where cave-ins and falls can injure and potentially kill the inhabitants. With Diamond's parents (and Bronze) being unfortunate examples. Hence why Bronze and the Tunnel Guards are a thing, they guard the more dangerous parts and help guide lions through them so they don't get hurt. On the other hand, disabled Travellers know the place is pro-Traveller so they will certainly settle there too. And you're good, I like an excuse to write an essay! Hope these answers clear some things up. c: - RJ

#ask #ask us stuff

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andiessoccerblog · 1 year

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Group H

Expected to move on: Germany, Colombia

Expected to exit in group stage: Morocco, Korea Republic

Germany

FIFA Ranking: 2

Reputation:

Much like the men’s side, the German women’s team is a MACHINE. Unless the unthinkable happens again (see: the men’s side 2018) Germany should get out of the group with ease, and I would definitely rank them as a favorite to win the World Cup. Their style of play is crisp, clean, and a little bit curt...if that makes sense. They will lay their bodies on the line, and they will lay your body on the line too if you’re playing against them. They shockingly failed to qualify for the 2020 Olympics, but were runners-up in the Women’s European Championship in 2022, which is a much more accurate indicator of their strength.

Player Pool:

Germany is another team with extraordinary depth, with all their players on top domestic teams or premier teams in England or France. Alexandra Popp, new captain of the team, also leads in goals scored for German, but is really known for the use of her large stature to win duels. Every position is filled with veterans, and Germany has been skillful in ensuring that even its younger players have gotten experience in big games. Every player is a team player and can be a standout in their own right, so it’s hard to pick specific players to highlight. That being said, of course there are players that rise to the top–Lena Oberdorf, Sara Däbritz, and Melanie Leupolz all deserve a shout out.

2019 WWC performance:

Germany looked okay during the women's World Cup, but less confident than many people had anticipated. They made it through the group stage with narrow 1-0 wins against Spain and China, and an easy win against debutante South Africa. They plowed over Nigeria in the round of sixteen, but were stymied by Sweden in the quarterfinals. On many past occasions, they had beaten Sweden, so many were surprised when the game went the other way. Dabritz, Magull, and Popp led the scoring, while young newcomer Gwinn and veteran Hegering held down the midfield and defense, playing all 450 minutes of their tournament run.

Colombia

FIFA Ranking: 26

Reputation:

Colombia’s women’s team has historically done well in South American competition, feuding with Brazil for top honors, even as their own federation doesn’t support them as much financially as they do their men’s side. Earlier in 2023 the Colombian Federation began an agreement with FIFA to begin increasing funding for women's soccer at all levels. That won’t help the team in this World Cup, and they will be fighting tooth and nail against Korea Republic for the second spot in the group.

Player Pool:

Colombia has one of the older teams of the World Cup, with more veterans than newbies. After missing the 2019 World Cup, they will need to rely on players that were around for the 2015 World Cup, like Catalina Usme, Daniela Montoya, and keeper Sandra Sepúlveda.

2019 WWC performance:

Did Not Qualify

Korea Republic

FIFA Ranking: 17

Reputation:

South Korea is recognized as “Korea Republic” by FIFA. Asia’s women’s football culture has been improving on a regional stage, but has struggled to keep up internationally, and Korea Republic is no exception. The best players on this team are the ones that leave Korea to play in a European or American league. They have never qualified for the Olympics. Their best result in a Women’s World Cup came in 2015, when they made it out of the group stage, but they couldn’t repeat the result in 2019, and likely won’t do it again in 2023.

Player Pool:

Ji So-yun (midfielder) made a name for herself and for Korea with a long career for Chelsea in England, but moved back to South Korea in 2022. Cho So-hyun is another team veteran playing in England, and the pair form a strong midfield. Captain is Kim Hye-ri, a veteran defender. She plays with about half the roster for South Korea’s Incheon Hyundai Steel Red Angels team, the top side in Korea’s domestic league.

2019 WWC performance:

Not great. They had a rough group, pulling Norway and France, so their only chance to advance was a third place spot, which neither they nor Nigeria achieved. They scored one goal in the tournament.

Morocco

FIFA Ranking: 73

Reputation:

Morocco reached their first World Cup under the distinguished coach Reynald Pedros, who previously had coached Olympique Lyonnais Féminin to the french championship. Under Pedros, the team has grown to be one of the best teams in Africa. However, they have a record of falling short against teams outside of Africa, and will need this tournament and more international exposure to become a contender.

Player Pool:

Captain Ghizlane Chebbak has played for Morocco for the last 10 years and is their top goalscorer. They have an up and coming forward in Rosella Ayane, who played for the English national youth teams, but switched to Morocco for her senior caps.

2019 WWC performance:

Did Not Qualify

#woso #uswnt #womens soccer #women's world cup #nwsl #world cup #wwc 2023 #gerwnt #germany #morocco #colombia #korea republic #south africa

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mariacallous · 1 year

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In 2001, Goldman Sachs banker Jim O’Neill created the acronym “BRIC” to refer to Brazil, Russia, India, and China—countries he predicted would soon have a significant impact on the global economy. In 2006, Goldman Sachs opened a BRIC investment fund pegged to growth in these four nations. The moniker captured the global excitement about emerging powers at the time and transformed into a political grouping in 2009, when leaders of the four countries held their first summit. South Africa joined a year later.

BRICS as a political body has faced countless critics and doubters from the start. Analysts in the Western press largely described the outfit as nonsensical and predicted its imminent demise. In 2011, the Financial Times’ Philip Stevens announced it was “time to bid farewell” to the “BRICS without mortar.” A year later, another columnist at the paper, Martin Wolf, asserted that BRICS was “not a group” and that its members had “nothing in common whatsoever.” BRICS has also been described as a “motley crew,” “odd grouping,” “random bunch,” and “disparate quartet.” In 2015, Goldman Sachs decided to close the BRIC fund (which never grew to include South Africa) due to its low returns.

BRICS member countries have numerous differences and disagreements. While Brazil and Russia are commodity exporters, China is a commodity importer. Brazil, India, and South Africa are democratic countries with vibrant civil societies, but China and Russia are autocratic regimes. Brazil and South Africa are nonnuclear powers, in contrast to China, India, and Russia, which boast nuclear arsenals. Perhaps most seriously, China and India face an ongoing border conflict.

And yet, despite their differences, not one BRICS leader has ever missed the group’s annual summits. (Meetings took place virtually during the COVID-19 pandemic.) Instead of unraveling, diplomatic and economic ties have strengthened, and BRICS membership has become a central element to each member’s foreign-policy identity. Even significant ideological shifts—including the election of right-wing populist leaders such as India’s Narendra Modi in 2014 and Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro in 2018—have not significantly altered countries’ commitment to the club.

Yet as BRICS approaches its 15th summit in Johannesburg this August, the grouping is experiencing an unprecedented disagreement over enlargement. The outcome will be a test of BRICS identity in the face of rising Chinese influence.

Despite the many disagreements and tensions among them, BRICS members have more in common than Western analysts often appreciate. The strategic benefits the outfit produces for its participants still far exceed its costs. Four aspects stand out.

First, all BRICS members see the emergence of multipolarity as both inevitable and generally desirable—and identify the bloc as a means to play a more active role in shaping the post-Western global order. Member states share a deep-seated skepticism of U.S.-led unipolarity and believe that the BRICS nations increase their strategic autonomy and bargaining power when negotiating with Washington. As Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said in opening remarks at the BRICS foreign ministers’ meeting in Cape Town, South Africa, on June 1, the concentration of economic power—presumably in the West—“leaves too many nations at the mercy of too few.”

Second, the BRICS grouping also provides privileged access to China, a country that has become enormously relevant for all other members. Brazil and South Africa in particular, which had only limited ties to Beijing prior to the group’s founding, have benefited from BRICS as they adapt to a more China-centric world. It’s not just the summits attended by heads of state: Ministers and other officials frequently gather to discuss issues such as climate, defense, education, energy, and health. And, largely under the radar, the grouping has organized countless annual meetings—in some years more than 100—involving government officials, think tanks, universities, cultural entities, and legislators. BRICS membership also granted countries a founding stake in the Shanghai-based New Development Bank (NDB), created during the fifth BRICS summit in 2013.

Third, BRICS members have generally treated each other as all-weather friends. The group has created a powerful diplomatic life raft for member countries that temporarily face difficulties on the global stage: Fellow BRICS states protected Russian President Vladimir Putin from diplomatic isolation after Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 and stood by Bolsonaro when he found himself globally isolated after his close ally Donald Trump’s failed reelection bid for the U.S. presidency. After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Putin could again rely on the other BRICS countries to provide him explicit diplomatic and economic support (China), help circumvent sanctions (India), participate in military exercises (South Africa), or embrace his narratives about the war (Brazil). Without BRICS support, Russia would find itself in a far more difficult situation today.

Finally, being a member of the BRICS creates considerable prestige, status, and legitimacy for Brazil, Russia, and South Africa, which for years have stagnated economically and are now anything but emerging powers. Even as Brazil has fallen behind in its share of global GDP, analysts continue to describe it as an emerging power—which facilitates investment and allows the government in Brasília, the capital, to punch above its weight diplomatically. That some 20 countries are now seeking membership in the group only confirms the notion that the BRICS seal remains powerful.

It is precisely on this last issue that the grouping is facing its biggest disagreement since its inception 14 years ago. Beijing, which does not need to preserve the grouping’s exclusivity to retain its global status, has for years aimed to integrate new members and slowly transform the bloc into a China-led alliance. Since 2017, when it presented the “BRICS Plus” concept—a mechanism to bring countries closer to the outfit before eventually granting them full membership—Beijing has sought to put expansion on the agenda. Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, expansion has also been of interest to Moscow, as it could help create a Russia-sympathetic bloc to counter Western attempts to isolate the country.

Brazil and India, on the other hand, have long been wary of adding new members to BRICS, as they have less to gain from a diluted club that includes smaller powers. Both Brasília and New Delhi fear that expansion would entail a loss of Brazilian and Indian influence within the group. In their eyes, new members would join largely to gain easier access to Beijing, making BRICS positions more China-centric and potentially less moderate. This explains why Jaishankar recently cautioned that deliberations on expansion were still a “work in progress,” and Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira said that “BRICS is a brand and an asset, so we have to take care of it, because it means and represents a lot.” South Africa, which traditionally has the least influence within BRICS, has sought to hedge its bets.

There is no formal application process—or specific criteria—to become a BRICS member. Some countries have simply been added to the list of potential future members after an informal expression of interest. But in last year’s BRICS summit declaration, member countries vowed to promote “discussions among BRICS members on BRICS expansion process” and stressed “the need to clarify the guiding principles, the standards, criteria and procedures.” The debate about BRICS expansion is not directly related to the NDB, which in 2021 added Bangladesh, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, and Uruguay as new members and announced that at least 30 percent of loans would be provided in the currencies of member states rather than the U.S. dollar.

In theory, each BRICS member has a veto over the group’s decisions, which explains why yearly summit declarations have often been vague. In practice, the grouping’s profound asymmetries—China’s GDP is larger than that of all other members combined—creates informal hierarchies. South Africa’s 2010 accession was led by China to bolster Beijing’s engagement on the African continent. It also made the IBSA grouping (of India, Brazil, and South Africa) superfluous. If killing IBSA was a desired side effect of South Africa’s BRICS membership—to show that three large democracies in the developing world discussing can’t discuss the future of the global south without China—Beijing succeeded: The 10th IBSA leaders’ summit, scheduled to take place in 2013, has been postponed indefinitely.

China and Russia may therefore succeed, despite Brazilian opposition and Indian skepticism, in adding new members to the club, particularly since Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva—to his advisors’ chagrin—recently expressed support for inviting Venezuela to BRICS during improvised remarks.

Disagreements over whether to expand BRICS are about more than exclusivity and status. Several potential accession candidates—such as Iran, Syria, and Venezuela—have largely pursued an anti-Western foreign policy. Their integration could complicate Brazil’s and India’s efforts to preserve a nonaligned strategy amid growing tensions between the West and the Beijing-Moscow axis.

The key to BRICS’ success since 2009 has been its capacity to circumvent internal disagreements and focus on unifying themes, such as the desire to build a more multipolar world and strengthen south-south relations. India-China ties are notoriously fraught and, despite New Delhi’s decision to help Moscow export its oil, India has systematically sought to reduce its dependence on Russian weapons and increased its arms purchases from Europe. The status quo may be the best BRICS can achieve without exposing its rifts. While Russia has long attempted to position the BRICS grouping as an anti-Western bloc, Brazil and India have steadily sought to prevent Moscow from doing so.

The uncertainty about how the South African government in Pretoria should handle hosting the upcoming BRICS summit in Johannesburg reflects the dilemmas it and Brasília currently face in the context of growing tensions between Moscow and the West. Since South Africa is a party to the Rome Statute, the founding charter of the International Criminal Court (ICC), it would be obligated to arrest Putin—whom the ICC has indicted—if he attends. For months, South Africans have debated how to handle the delicate situation. As former South African President Thabo Mbeki recently pointed out: “We can’t say to President Putin, please come to South Africa, and then arrest him. At the same time, we can’t say come to South Africa, and not arrest him—because we’re defying our own law—we can’t behave as a lawless government.”

While hosting Putin without arresting him would strain South Africa’s ties to the West, not hosting him—or organizing the summit elsewhere—would dilute BRICS’ commitment to being all-weather friends. The most likely scenario is that South Africa finds a legal loophole to host Putin without detaining him—representing a diplomatic triumph for the Russian president.

Still, it is largely a lose-lose dilemma for South Africa, and means that being part of BRICS has started to have a tangible cost for the country by negatively affecting its ties to the United States and Europe. Pretoria has already had a taste of this: After South Africa drew closer to Russia after its invasion of Ukraine—including by allegedly supplying Moscow with weapons—the G-7 decided not to invite it as a guest to a recent summit, for the first time since South African President Cyril Ramaphosa took office in 2018. Unless the Russia-Ukraine war ends soon, Brazil—which has also signed the Rome Statute and is slated to host the G-20 summit in 2024 and the BRICS summit in 2025 —will soon face the same problem.

For all its ongoing challenges, BRICS generates many benefits for its members and is here to stay. Yet if the group announces the inclusion of new members during the upcoming summit in Johannesburg, it would be simplistic to interpret it as a sign of strength. Rather, expansion should be read as a sign of China’s growing capacity to determine the bloc’s overall strategy—and may reflect the emergence not of a multipolar order, but of a bipolar one.

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p-redux · 2 years

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Seems like a huge stretch to assume she’s been w sam all this time. He’s always seemed to keep work his main focus, as an example, MM barely visited him and they were in a serious relationship

Um, when did I say Karina was with Sam this whole time? We KNOW she was in Italy with her friends and other places. So, NO, I don't think Karina has been with him this whole time. Capisce?

But it could be that she continues to spend time with him in L.A., N.Y., and the UK.

As for Mackenzie Mauzy, you are absolutely WRONG. Look at all my past posts and/or Google and you will see ALL the time Sam and Mackenzie spent together from 2016-2018. And those are only the instances we KNOW about.

They spent time together (off the top of my head and in no particular order): Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, San Diego, New York, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Isle of Skye, London, St. Lucia, Switzerland, France, Holland, South Africa, Montreal, Georgia (for her brother's wedding), North Carolina, Seattle, Hungary. Did I miss any?

And I know for a fact, from a trusted source, that New York was their half way meeting point when they wanted to see each other but couldn't make the trip all the way either to Glasgow or Los Angeles. New York is half way in between. So Mackenzie would fly from Los Angeles to New York and Sam would fly from Glasgow to New York and they would meet, even if it was only for a few days. There is picture PROOF of all these trips (except for the under the radar NY trips, of course) so you can't deny they traveled a lot together, and therefore spent a lot of time together.

Look at all the places I mentioned, does that seem like two people who never saw each other?

The "Sam and Mackenzie never saw each other, so they didn't have a relationship," is a FALSE narrative perpetrated by Extreme Shippers to diminish how serious the Samzie relationship was.

I LOVE being able to debunk LIES. You made my day, thanks! 😘

#samheughan #mackenziemauzy #extremeshippers #karinaellelisenbee #karinalisenbee #karinaelle #samrina #samzie

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jessethegoat · 2 years

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Jesse's first article of WC 2022

it's really interesting to read, so I put it below (Athletic does have awesome articles about football and do subscribe if you can ❤️). Also his thought about Pulisic is very interesting.

I had the perfect seat. Upper deck, front row.

All around me at the sold-out Meadowlands there were people in soccer jerseys. They were singing songs and chanting. I felt like I was in Europe. I was a college student at Princeton University in 1994 when the World Cup came to the U.S. and I remember going to the hotel to pick up my tickets for the semi-final from a Princeton alum, Charlie Stillitano. The whole Italian team was sitting in the lobby drinking espressos, of course. Maldini. Costacurta. Albertini. Baggio.

These guys were my heroes. My coach at Princeton, Bob Bradley, had basically modelled us to play like AC Milan. I knew those Italian players inside and out. And then to be in the stadium watching them play against Hristo Stoitchkov and Bulgaria, to see the fanfare. It was eye-opening for me. It was exciting, the possibility of having that kind of soccer culture back home. We absolutely needed that 1994 World Cup in our country to give our sport a chance. The fact so many people were so excited about it gave us the idea that a league could be successful. It made us dream — even if I never could’ve imagined I’d be team-mates with Stoitchkov just a few years later.

This U.S. men’s national team gives me that same feeling. Inside the business of professional soccer in the U.S., the World Cup has always been a litmus test of where we are in our development of the sport in our country. Outside of the business, for the fans and the public, it’s more about the momentum and overall outlook of the sport. It’s about the potential of where we can go.

When you’re there at the World Cup, you can miss some of that big picture. I remember when Landon Donovan scored that goal against Algeria in South Africa in 2010. In the locker room, we were pumped. I remember the power and excitement of winning the group. Of mentally getting ready for the next match. But the movement back home that it created? We didn’t anticipate that. And then we saw the videos coming out of all of these celebrations in the bars back home.

That’s what the World Cup is about.

And this U.S. team has a chance to be inspiring again. That’s the best thing that can happen for our sport. How the team plays, the tactics, the performance? That’s the litmus test. But we need that momentum. We need a team that’s inspiring.

Certainly one of the talking points around the U.S. team in Qatar is that only one player on the squad (DeAndre Yedlin) has been to the World Cup. It’s a young group that doesn’t know anything about the tournament — what the rhythm is like, the pressure. They’ve played in the youth tournaments, but now they’re on the big stage. I’ve seen some of the quotes from some of the guys this week saying it hasn’t really even sunk in yet that they’re at the World Cup because I think for all of them it’s been a dream.

I know inexperience will be a factor, but I give big credit to U.S. Soccer and to Gregg Berhalter because it would have been easy to keep veteran guys such as Michael Bradley, Brad Guzan and others, players that were and are still very good players, and feel the security of: “They’ve been there. They know what it takes. They’re going to help lead us into the new phase with these young players.” But Gregg and the federation committed entirely to young players and now when you look at it, of course achieving qualification was a must given the fact we missed out in 2018, but if this group can do well in this tournament, you can use it as a springboard for 2026. It was really well done and really well thought-out and it gives us a chance to be better in 2026.

And youth doesn’t have to be a detriment.

One thing for sure is that over the years fearlessness has been the American identity. I think of the 2002 team that went to the quarter-finals; that was a big part of it. They played with total reckless abandonment and belief. That was certainly part of it for us in 2010, when you think about how we fought and battled back in games against England and Slovenia. And of course that late goal against Algeria. There is this identity of fearlessness and belief in U.S. teams, and soon we will see that in this group. They’re too young to be afraid. Too young to know any better.

And then we will see if it can be matched with clarity — in terms of roles, tactics and intensity. That’s the recipe for success in all the games, and certainly against England.

Planning out how to play in a World Cup is not easy. If I’m the manager, I’m asking myself, “All right, based on the opponent and what the games are going to require, what is necessary in the team?” We did this a lot in 2010. We looked at each game, knowing that we were going to have to have some rotation and use our entire squad the right way. We tried to predict what each game was going to look like and then which players would fit the idea of what the game was, what our match plan was going to be and what the match-ups were going to be on the day.

We would have four-hour conversations about two positions. We’d debate options for scenarios: if the game is tight, if we need a goal, if we make formation changes.

Obviously, there are players who are going to play in every game. Christian Pulisic and Tyler Adams fit that category. But then you start to analyze things like: is Tim Ream the right guy for a counter-attacking team like Wales? Or is he a little bit better against England, where he knows the team, he knows all of those players and can sit a little bit deeper? He’s clever in the box defending, and then with the ball, he can make good decisions.

In 2010, in four games we wound up using everyone other than Jonathan Spector — 19 of 20 field players. And I think that’s one of the keys: figuring out how to use the arsenal of players you have. I hate talking about football and tactics like it’s a chess match, but sometimes you’re trying to analyze game by game by game. What do you expect each opponent to look like? And who are the best players to use to maximize your potential in that match?

It’s why Ream is a good match for Aaron Long on the roster. Facing Tim in the Premier League, you see he has really developed an intelligence on the pitch, a savviness and an understanding of games. Tim is incredibly good with the ball, but it’s not just that his technical ability is good, it’s that he’s a good decision-maker. When you watch him play week in and week out in the Premier League, he doesn’t make many mistakes because he’s a very intelligent player. He plays to his strengths and he’s good at that. Long has a bigger arsenal to draw on in terms of qualities and athleticism, but he doesn’t have the experience that Tim has. Now you have one player that has a little bit more athleticism and you have one player with a little bit more experience. And the balance of those two could be good.

Walker Zimmerman could be good if the game is requiring two center backs that are gonna have to defend in the box and deal with a lot of crosses and manage a lot of tight spaces and some shots and one-v-ones on the outside of the box. These are some of the decisions Gregg and his staff are going to have to make as they plan out the group.

Against Wales, the U.S. is going to see a team that sits in a low block and looks to hit them in transition with players like Daniel James and Gareth Bale. It will likely be similar against Iran. I always say the reason teams play with a low block is that it’s hard to break down. People like to criticize you when you can’t break those teams down, but when they have a low block, that’s the strategy, right? At Leeds, one of the things that we always talk about against teams like this is finishing plays with shots. We want to finish, obviously, with goals, but we say we want to finish plays with shots on frame because that’s another way to create more corners and more set-piece plays. Those can be the difference in these types of games.

Defensively, when those types of teams have a goal kick or the goalkeeper has the ball in his hands, it’s about coming a little bit deeper and inviting your opponent to try to play more. Some teams won’t bite and they go direct, then you have to be good in second-ball situations. Because at that point, if they push forward and go direct and you’re good in second-ball situations, you have created more space behind the opponent where then you can create quick combinations in midfield and look to play more vertically behind them.

One of the most important strategies, for me, when you’re playing a low block is actually losing the balls in certain areas for counter-pressing, so you can win the ball back and create chances. You have to be good at counter-pressing. Incredibly good.

You also have to be good at rest defense, which is marking the opponents while you are in possession. It is crucial to be disciplined in making sure that their players are not standing free, because the tighter you are when you lose the ball, the less you give them room to get out on the run. It requires an acute awareness that every time you lose the ball, you need complete commitment from every player to make sure that you’re running back, that you’re counter-pressing, that you’re smart about fouls, that you do not allow the team to play into the exact strategy that they want. And you have to be aware of the strategy of the opponent the entire match and understand their strengths and eliminate those possibilities.

Even on attacking set pieces, you often have to literally man-mark their transition players because a lot of times these teams want to be effective off defensive set pieces. When I’ve played Liverpool over the years, I’ve man-marked Mohamed Salah on our corner kicks. You get your fastest, most-disciplined players in those roles. You need guys that take pride in that. It’s one of the beauties of Tyler Adams. He takes pride in not allowing his defensive responsibilities to slip. And you need players that are committed to that — that are disciplined, focused, concentrated on exactly those strategies.

All of these things require a very clean and clear tactical awareness of the entire group at all times, and very clear roles on the day for what’s necessary. When you do that well, you can completely dominate the match. If you’re too loose and your awareness is not good enough, then you can look very vulnerable.

England will obviously be a match where they have the ball a little bit more, which could be good for the U.S. This is one of the things with Leeds, too. We like playing against opponents that want the ball because we’re fast, we have athleticism, we like to press, we like to play with intensity. This U.S. player pool can run. They’re young, they’re fit and they have some talent. And most of them, most importantly, are built with fearlessness. A lot of the guys are playing now in the Premier League or in the Champions League week-in and week-out. These guys know what the level of a game like that is. I think if they can be organized against the ball and in pressing, and if they can be good in set-piece situations, defensive and attacking, that will give them the best chance to get a result in that match.

The forward situation is the trickiest for the U.S., especially in a tournament like this. Berhalter likes to overload the wings and create crossing situations, and to do that you need somebody in the middle who can finish, who runs hard in the box, who knows to find space. In the games in CONCACAF when the U.S. have had a lot of possession and have been able to push teams back, they’ve been able to create chances more from that inverted winger position coming inside and creating combinations and scoring goals that way. But against better competition, I think the two ways that they’ll be looking to score will be from crossing and from transition.

Wales have some really good center backs who are strong defending in the box, and so you have to try to find overloads — creating numerical advantages in specific areas of the field — in order to get into the box.

That’s what will be important for me, whether it’s against Wales or Iran, is that we don’t just look like a bunch of attacking players standing outside the box, that we’re putting pressure on them by putting numbers inside the box. By attacking crosses, flat crosses, by creating combinations in the box, by trying to go one-v-one and get penalties. Those things will be vital and good things to watch for in those matches.

It all comes back to one idea: how can you be really dangerous to score goals? For the U.S. in this World Cup, that will be the big question: where are the goals coming from?

Maybe the answer is a simple one: Pulisic.

One of the most difficult things for me is I don’t know Christian well enough. A big part of uncovering the potential of players is uncovering the potential of the people. You have to get to know players to really unearth the potential of their personality, within what their qualities are as a player. And that’s often the fun for me of being a coach. A lot of times with me it’s young players, but that’s not always the case.

We have Rodrigo at Leeds, and he’s 31 and I’ve even had a conversation with him at one point and said it’s too bad I didn’t know him when he was 18 because I could have helped make him one of the best players in the world — I truly believe that. But in the process at Leeds, we’re still uncovering new potentials for him and he’s committed and adapted incredibly well. But to do that I’ve had to really get to know Rodrigo as a person and what makes him tick. What are his vulnerabilities? What are his insecurities? What things make him stronger? What are the things he likes?

With Christian, I don’t know him well enough, and I’ve said in the past that I would love to get to know him more because I can see that there’s so much potential there. But I often wonder how to tap into it, truly.

If we look at what Christian can bring to the U.S. at this World Cup, from a purely tactical perspective, he’s best in space. So in transition moments and when he can be on the run and use his combination of agility and speed and technical ability, that’s when he’s able to be at his best. That feeds more into the games where the U.S. are able to be a little bit more in pressing phases and are in more transition phases. We could see more of that in the England game.

The key, though, is that Christian has also got to find ways to be dynamic running off the ball in the box, not just being satisfied with wanting to get the ball wide in spaces. What I like to say to attacking players in those situations is that our good players can handle the ball in wide spaces — on the wing or in deeper spaces in the midfield. Our best players need to put themselves in dangerous spots that the other players aren’t as good in. And so that involves being more in and around the box, being in and around the center backs and using your cleverness and ability in tight spaces, using your quick first step and then obviously your finishing ability. If Pulisic can do that, the U.S. will be far more dangerous.

In just a few days, we’ll see which way it goes, but as I think about that first game, I keep coming back to that feeling I had way back in 1994 at the Meadowlands. That feeling of the potential that is there for the sport in our country.

They won’t want to talk about it right now, but in reality, this World Cup is a stepping stone for the team going into 2026. We all want to see the team do really well now, but everyone back home is looking at 2026 and imagining what this can really become when the World Cup comes back to the U.S.

It’s a foolish thing to even say out loud, but can we be contenders at home? To even say that out loud is ridiculous. But we do think this is a golden generation of players. We do think that — on pure potential — this is the best group we’ve ever had. So can they develop and grow in a way where, in three and a half years, they can be talked about as semi-finalists? Finalists?

That is the hope of what 2026 can mean.

Inside the business and outside it, too.

#jesse marsch #article #leeds united #US men national team #USMNT #world cup 2022 #wc 22 #christian pulisic #tyler adams #rodrigo moreno #fav

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aiveecastillo · 1 year

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The most number of wins in Miss Universe:

USA: 9 (1954, 1956, 1960, 1967, 1980, 1995, 1997, 2012, 2022)

Venezuela: 7 (1979, 1981, 1986, 1996, 2008, 2009, 2013)

Puerto Rico: 5 (1970, 1985, 1993, 2001, 2006)

India: 3 (1994, 2000, 2021)

Mexico: 3 (1991, 2010, 2020)

South Africa: 3 (1978, 2017, 2019)

Australia: 3 (1972, 2004, 2018)

Colombia: 3 (1958, 2014, 2015)

Sweden: 3 (1955, 1966, 1984)

#Miss Universe #R'Bonney Gabriel #Gabriela Isler #Zuleyka Rivera #Harnaaz Sandhu #Andrea Meza #Zozibini Tunzi #Catriona Gray #Ariadna Gutierrez #Yvonne Ryding

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crownsandqueens · 2 years

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Evening gown competition of the Miss Universe pageant 2018:

Miss Venezuela, Sthefany Gutierrez

Miss South Africa, Tamaryn Green

Miss Philippines, Catriona Gray

Miss Vietnam, H’Hen Nie

Miss Puerto Rico, Kiara Ortega

#Miss Universe contestants #Miss Philippines #miss vietnam

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sweetswesf · 2 years

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I Found an Old Goals List...

...and it made me chuckle...

by each of the "Want to Be"s, I put who I knew was currently in that role...some names, I don't even recognize...How I feel today is in red...

Want to Be

Fundraiser

Owner of Microfinancing Philanthropist

Financial Infrastructure Engineer

Data Scientist

Product Director

Trader on Wall Street

Enterprise Saleswoman

App Owner/Business Owner/Entrepreneur/Mogul

Professor

Teacher

Author

Investment Banker

Fantasy

Actress

Dancer

DJ (Hannah Bronfman)

TV Host (Desus & Mero)

Tour Manager

Don’t Want to Be

Attorney

Real Estate Agent

Rapper

Singer

Scientist

Fitness Coach

Event Planner

Office Manager

Financial Advisor

Financial Analyst

5 Year Plan – 2017 - 2021 – 24 - 28 YO (6/13 complete)

Establish connections, gain industry experience (happened)

Complete my 1st Marathon – 2017 (happened)

Raise & Promotion @ L – 2017 (happened 2018)

Leave L – 2018 (happened 2022)

Visit Cuba - 2018 (didn't happen, lost my passport and fought w/my mom pretty badly over this one...)

Join Netflix w/ 6 figure salary – 2018 (hahahah)

Complete UC Berkeley data science program – 2018 (no longer a desire)

Make 1st trade on NYSE - 2018 (happened 2019)

Visit KT in Bangkok/Bhutan/Charles in Singapore – 2019

Visit Japan - 2020 (happened 2018)

Become Mid-level Finance Manager – 2021 (ahahhaah)

Earn CFA - 2021 (not a desire)

Visit Switzerland - 2021 (not a desire)

10 Year Plan – 2022 - 2026 – 29 - 33 YO

Visit Capetown - 2022 (2023...2022 is over this week, I don't think this finna happen...)

Return to work in NYC on Wall Street as Financial Infrastructure Manager – 2022 (no, but I did work in NYC in 2021...)

Finish the NYC Marathon - 2022 (don't care to anymore)

Learn basic conversational and reading in Japanese – 2022 (I tried in 2021...but other things were prioritized)

Visit Hong Kong - 2022 (with that air pollution & covid?? nahhh)

Harvard Business School funded by employer – 2023 (could happen...)

Visit Dubai/UAE/Mecca - 2023 (I don't care to go there anymore...human rights reasons...)

Work abroad in Italy, South Africa, Japan or London – 2024 (could happen...)

Visit Brazil – 2024

Visit Australia – 2025

Visit Tahiti – 2026

First child with natural birth – 2026 (yikes...unless my future husband has 8 figures, miss me with this one...)

Own NYC loft - 2026 (we shooting big here!...can happen...)

Get hired at T4 or T5 SWE position at my top choice company - 2023

Get a $180k+ base salary - 2023

Start dating a guy a like and who likes me - 2023

Move to a 1 bedroom in Manhattan or Brooklyn, New York - 2023

Master all the topics I want to before June 2023 - June 2023

Look like Tamara Prichett, Melanie Alcantara, Jade Cargill, or Massy Arias - 2024

Update my app to be on React - 2024

Mentor an intern engineer - 2024

Get a promotion - 2024

Staff engineer - 2025

Visit friends in Milan - 2023

15 Year Plan – 2027 - 2031 – 34 - 38 YO

Visit the Amazon – 2027 (don't really care to do this anymore)

Fundraise for my own app – 2027 (2028)

Go public with my company – 2031 (2037, MAYBE)

Get married to a really rich man (2026)

Move back in with grandparents to code for my app full time or live off of my really rich husband - 2027

35 Year Plan – 2032 – 2050 – 39 – 58 YO

Grow company

Tech Invest - 2040

Own home in NJ or NY - 2040

Retire – 2050

40 Year Plan – 2051 – 2055 – 59 – 63 YO

Become teacher in LA – 2051

41 Year Plan – 2056 - 2060 – 64 - 68 YO

Become USC Trustee

It could happen...I have to believe and work hard...

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