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Yes @Cyberpsycho?

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YES @Cyberpsycho?

One of Honda's earliest passenger cars was a sportscar. With a redline of 9500 rpm and a curb weight of 1500 pounds, this little roadster is part car, part motorcycle. This one is a rare left-hand-drive example originally from the island of Okinawa. In the mid 1960s, a Japanese journalist named Shotaro Kobayashi shipped his white Honda S600 to Europe, and spend the next two months and 7500 miles hitting all the highlights. He toured the Porsche factory just as it was tooling up for production of the 911 (then called the 901). He showed up at Lotus and let Colin Chapman take a spin in the little Honda—Chapman came away impressed. Perhaps most importantly, Kobayashi and his S600 were there for Honda's debut in F1 at the Nürburgring with its spidery RA271. Who wouldn't want to relive that kind of adventure? Well, perhaps you can. Up for auction on Bring a Trailer—which, like Car and Driver, is part of Hearst Autos— is a near-identical match to Kobayashi's tiny road-tripping roadster, albeit one more appropriate for U.S. roads, with the steering wheel on the left side. It's a 1966 Honda S600, one of Honda's earliest passenger cars—almost more motorcycle than car. The Honda story began with motorcycles, and later in the U.S. with the thrifty and utilitarian N600 of the early 1970s. The S600 is basically the Venn diagram overlap area of those two worlds: It's got a 606-cc engine that sips fuel but one that also redlines at 9500 rpm, with four tiny carburetors, one for each cylinder. The S600 was never officially sold in the States, although Canada did receive some left-hand-drive models through a few motorcycle dealerships. This version is a left-hooker because it was originally delivered to Okinawa, which was then under American administration. In fact, Okinawans drove on the right side of the road up until June of 1978. The S600's furiously-spinning four-cylinder makes just shy of 60 horsepower, but that's only part of the driving experience. Instead, it's all about the 1500-pound curb weight, as feathery-light as a contemporary Lotus Elan. Driving an S600 is like putting a saddle and a Honda badge on a hummingbird. Its lack of inertia makes it feel agile and darty today, and in the 1960s must have been a complete revelation. This example has the equivalent of 54K miles on its odometer, and has benefited from a recent comprehensive mechanical overhaul. Both the engine and transmission were disassembled and rebuilt, including the twin rear chain drives. The fuel system was cleaned, and the electrics inspected. Best of all, this car's white on red color scheme is a match for Honda's first F1 cars. Dr. Honda himself had to fight for the right to paint his road cars white or red (neither was legal in Japan at the time except for emergency vehicles). White shows off the elegantly restrained design of this little car to maximum effect. Driving such a small car in modern traffic for 7500 miles might be a non-starter these days, but even a short weekend spin will feel adventurous in something so tiny and swift. The spirits of Shotaro and Soichiro will ride shotgun with you, smiling through the first curve. The auction ends on March 19. https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a60214675/1966-honda-s600-roadster-bring-a-trailer-auction/

Erik ten Hag said Manchester ­United’s FA Cup victory against ­Liverpool could be the turning point he and his team need after beating their fierce rivals in an epic ­quarter‑final at Old Trafford. United came from 2-1 down in normal time and 3-2 down in extra time to win 4-3 thanks to Amad Diallo’s 120th‑minute winner. The matchwinning substitute was sent off for removing his shirt during the wild celebrations, having been booked earlier for preventing a quick ­Liverpool free-kick. Ten Hag’s team could have completed their comeback in normal time only for Marcus Rashford to miss a gilt-edged chance with the final kick but, having booked a semi-final place against Coventry at Wembley, the United manager was thrilled with the character and desire on display at Old Trafford. “It could be [a turning point] but we have missed so many opportunities,” Ten Hag said. “Arsenal in the fourth game of the season we should have had a penalty in the 87th ­minute, then we scored with ­Garnacho and it was disallowed and then we conceded a goal that should be disallowed. Every team needs these moments in a ­season but we never had one. This could be the moment that gives the team energy and the belief that they can do amazing things. When you can beat Liverpool like this you can beat any opponent.” The United manager believes his side produced their best ­football of the season at the start of the ­quarter‑final only to lose their way as Liverpool recovered with goals from Alexis Mac Allister and Mohamed Salah. “The first 35 minutes we showed again that the future of this team is very bright,” he said. “There is huge potential and now we have to get it out con­sistently. The first 35 minutes was very pleasing. It was really fun to be part of this game. After the first 35 we had our drop and allowed them back in the game. We know they have a very good team but we showed resilience and determination to win the game.” Defeat ended Liverpool’s dreams of a quadruple in Jürgen Klopp’s final season. The mana­ger said his side toiled in extra time when the demands on a squad that has thrived recently in adversity finally caught up with them. Klopp said: “We didn’t finish the game off and when you leave the door open away from home at Old Trafford it’s clear they will get chances and they could score the equaliser. Marcus [Rashford] had a big chance at the end of normal time. It was then really hard for us. That was the first time I saw my team really struggling. We played a lot of football recently and then go 3-2 up and all good and then they win 4-3. Come on, you can easily accept that. “Congratulations to United. They fought extremely hard as well. You want to go to the semi-finals and both teams understood the importance of the occasion and the competition. We tried absolutely everything and didn’t get a lot from it. “Now the boys have to recover. It’s really tough. They fly all over the world now and in five or six days’ time play the first of two games. Let’s really hope and pray they come back healthy and we can start the rest of the season.” A brilliant spectacle was marred by tragedy chanting from United ­supporters before and during the match, with Greater Manchester police (GMP) ­making an arrest in ­connection with the taunts. The Football ­Association condemned the ­chanting. A ­significant number of fans in the Stretford End were heard chanting “­Murderers”, “The Sun was right” and “Always the victims” around the hour, with the singing audible to the live television audience. A police spokesperson said:“GMP can confirm that an arrest has been made in connection with tragedy chanting at the Manchester United V Liverpool fixture this afternoon. Incidents of tragedy chanting will not be tolerated and will be dealt with robustly.” The FA said: “We strongly condemn any offensive, abusive and discriminatory chants in football stadiums, and we are determined to stamp this behaviour out. It is entirely unacceptable and can have a lasting and damaging impact on people and communities within our game. It must stop, and we support any club and their fans who try to eradicate this from the terraces.” https://www.theguardian.com/football/2024/mar/17/erik-ten-hag-fa-cup-quarter-final-liverpool-manchester-united

Yes @WHAT IS GOING ON?

Mosquitoes infected with Wolbachia bacteria that inhibit spread of disease to be introduced in six cities after successful pilot scheme A dengue-transmitting mosquito, Aedes aegypti, in São Paulo, Brazil. When the mosquito is infected with Wolbachia, transmission of arboviruses is limited. Photograph: Isaac Fontana/EPA A dengue-fighting strategy that involves releasing bacteria-infected mosquitoes will be rolled out to six Brazilian cities in the coming months as the country battles a severe outbreak of dengue fever, a viral disease transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito. Factors such as hotter and wetter weather caused by the climate crisis and the circulation of previously absent subtypes of the virus are fuelling an explosion of dengue in Brazil, which has recorded 1.6m probable cases since January – the same number reported for all of last year – and 491 deaths, with a further 889 deaths under investigation, as of 14 March. Local and national health authorities have stepped up their response, notably boosting prevention measures, which include community health agents crisscrossing cities on the lookout for containers of stagnant water that could permit mosquitoes to breed. “Our strategies are old and heavily focused on vector control,” said Ethel Maciel, the secretary for health surveillance at the health ministry. But amid “a significant change in the pattern of dengue” – with earlier and bigger spikes in infections – the government is turning to newer technologies with medium-term results, such as vaccines and the release of mosquitoes infected with bacteria that limit the transmission of dengue and other arboviruses to humans. The Wolbachia method – named after a type of bacteria found in about 60% of insects but not naturally present in Aedes aegypti – has already been introduced in five Brazilian cities, providing protection to 3.2 million people. An 80m reais (£12.5m) expansion to six new municipalities will cover a further 1.7 million people. A member of staff at the World Mosquito Program releases Wolbachia mosquitoes in Niterói. The car contains 900 tubes that he will release every 50 metres. Photograph: Adrienne Surprenant/Collectif/Wellcome Eggs and larvae of Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes – which Brazilians have nicknamed “wolbitos” – will be provided by a Rio de Janeiro lab in a public health institute run by the health science organisation Fiocruz, which manages the Wolbachia method in Brazil in partnership with the NGO World Mosquito Program (WMP) and with support from the health ministry. “We started off in a tiny room, with just three small cages. And now we have these big rearing cages which can hold 32,000 mosquitoes,” said the lab’s supervisor Cátia Cabral during a recent tour of the 397 sq metre (4,273 sq ft) facility, which houses approximately 1.5 million adult mosquitoes and produces 10m eggs each week. There are plans to build a bigger mosquito-breeding lab in another state. Cabral, a biologist who has worked with the WMP since the start of its Brazil-based projects 10 years ago, leads a team of 17 people who are responsible for keeping the colony of wolbitos alive in a continuous cycle of reproduction. They also monitor the implementation of the Wolbachia method in targeted areas by diagnosing Aedes aegypti eggs collected in the field. Niterói, a city of half a million inhabitants across the Guanabara Bay from Rio de Janeiro, hosted one of the initial pilot projects back in 2015 and later became the first city with full Wolbachia coverage. This appears to have helped keep dengue numbers down even as the state of Rio declared an official emergency last month. Just 689 probable cases had been recorded in Niterói as of 14 March, compared with 61,779 in neighbouring Rio de Janeiro, where the Wolbachia method was trialled on a smaller scale and in areas that presented specific challenges, such as violence-plagued favelas. Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, which transmit dengue fever and Zika virus, in a jar at the International Atomic Energy Agency Insect Pest Control Laboratory in Seibersdorf, Austria. Photograph: Christian Bruna/EPA “Rio is a city with 12 times the po[CENSORED]tion but [nearly] 100 times more dengue cases than Niterói,” said Axel Grael, the mayor of Niterói. “There is no doubt that the application of the Wolbachia strategy has been decisive for our results.” New research is expected to be published later this year, but a 2021 study associated the deployment of Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes in Niterói with a 69% decrease in dengue, as well as a 56% and 37% decrease in the incidence of chikungunya and Zika, respectively – two other Aedes-borne diseases. The low cost, self-sustaining nature and proven efficacy of the Wolbachia method appeals to city authorities, according to Luciano Moreira, a Fiocruz researcher who leads the WMP in Brazil. “We have a list of more than 50 municipalities that have got in touch requesting [‘wolbitos’],” he said, adding: “Our biggest bottleneck right now is the production of mosquitoes.” The new mosquito-breeding lab, which should be up and running by 2025, will increase the current production capacity tenfold, to 100m eggs each week. “Our projections show that within 10 years, we will be able to protect around 70 million Brazilians across various cities,” said Moreira. https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2024/mar/15/brazil-to-release-millions-of-anti-dengue-mosquitoes-as-death-toll-from-outbreak-mounts

The actor talks to Vicki Power about the community of dog-walking, the genius of Peter Falk and the importance of a bedtime routine ‘I’m trying to take care of myself’: David Harewood. Photograph: Dave Benett/Getty Images for Walpole Up early? Our Cavapoo, Sebby, enjoys getting me up at the crack of dawn, so by 7.30 we’re out the door heading for Streatham or Wandsworth Common, rain or shine. It’s nice – you get chatting to other dog walkers. What’s for breakfast? Occasionally my wife [Kirsty] and I will cook a fry-up: bacon, egg, sausage, beans, toast, black pudding and tea. If not, we’ll snack until we have a Sunday roast around three or four. It’ll just be me and my wife: our eldest daughter is at university and our youngest daughter won’t be out of bed until 2pm. Sundays growing up? It was all about football. I’d play for my school on Saturday and then for my Sunday league team. By 8am I’d be getting in a poky little van with my mates and driving to some godforsaken part of Birmingham to play on a muddy pitch with stones and glass. It was joyous. Then I’d go home with a few mates and my mum would cook for everybody. Sunday mornings now? I will tune in to a couple of episodes of Columbo. Peter Falk is a genius, and I love those old stars playing the baddies. It takes me back to being a kid. Then the sport starts: Formula One or a big football match. I become a complete couch potato. Late afternoon? The sport lasts all afternoon. My wife will be downstairs braiding my daughter’s hair. I’m left to my own devices, which is wonderful. I might pop to the shed, prune some bushes in the garden, or head to Brixton on my bike and sit outside with a sneaky beer, watching the world go by. Sundays are about indulgence. Early evening? I’ll have reheated roast beef and gravy around 8pm, with a nibble of rum, and we’ll watch a big, meaty drama. Just before bed? My New Year’s resolution was to give myself a bedtime routine – when I’m away I tend to fall into bed, sometimes drunk. So I’m trying to take care of myself. I’ll wash my face, moisturise, maybe have a bath with Epsom salts. Then I’ll pop into my office for an hour to look at the week ahead. David appears in World’s Most Dangerous Roads, tonight at 8pm on Dave and catch-up on UKTV Play” https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2024/mar/17/sunday-with-david-harewood-i-sit-with-a-sneaky-beer-watching-the-world-go-by

The UN agency says surviving children do not ‘even have the energy to cry’ as famine looms in the besieged enclave being bombarded for months. A Palestinian girl holds a bowl of beans before an iftar meal in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip [File: Mohammed Abed/AFP] Israel has killed more than 13,000 children in Gaza since October 7 while others are suffering from severe malnutrition and do not “even have the energy to cry”, says the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). “Thousands more have been injured or we can’t even determine where they are. They may be stuck under rubble … We haven’t seen that rate of death among children in almost any other conflict in the world,” UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell told the CBS News network on Sunday. “I have been in wards of children who are suffering from severe anaemia malnutrition, the whole ward is absolutely quiet. Because the children, the babies … don’t even have the energy to cry.” Russell said there were “very great bureaucratic challenges” moving trucks into Gaza for aid and assistance as famine stalks more than two million Palestinians since Israel’s “genocidal” war began. Moreover, according to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), one in three children under the age of two in northern Gaza is now acutely malnourished. The agency also warned that famine is looming in the besieged enclave facing relentless Israeli bombing for more than five months. International criticism has mounted on Israel due to the death toll of the war, the starvation crisis in Gaza, and allegations of blocking aid deliveries into the enclave. On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeated his threat of a ground assault on Rafah, the town bordering Egypt where more than a million Palestinians have taken refuge. “No amount of international pressure will stop us from realising all the goals of the war: eliminating Hamas, releasing all our hostages and ensuring that Gaza will no longer pose a threat against Israel,” Netanyahu said in a video released by his office. “To do this, we will also operate in Rafah,” he said. Play Video Since October 7, Israel’s military campaign has killed at least 31,645 Palestinians in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s health ministry, and displaced nearly two million of its residents. The Israeli operation has also led to accusations of genocide, being probed at the UN’s International Court of Justice. Israel has repeatedly denied the genocide charges and stressed that it is acting in self-defence after the October 7 attack by Hamas that it says killed more than 1,130 people and took more than 200 as captives. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/17/over-13000-children-killed-in-gaza-others-severely-malnourished-unicef

Russian President Vladimir Putin has hailed his election victory as a vindication of his decision to invade Ukraine [File: Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP] Russian President Vladimir Putin has cemented his grip on power in a landslide election victory that has been widely criticised as lacking democratic legitimacy. In a post-election news conference, Putin cast the outcome as a vindication of his decision to defy the West and invade Ukraine. “No matter who or how much they want to intimidate us, no matter who or how much they want to suppress us, our will, our consciousness – no one has ever succeeded in anything like this in history,” Putin said in an address from his campaign headquarters early on Monday morning. “It has not worked now and will not work in the future. Never.” Shortly after the last polls closed on Sunday, early returns pointed to the conclusion everyone expected: that Putin would extend his nearly quarter-century rule for six more years. According to Russia’s Central Election Commission, he had some 87 percent of the vote with about 60 percent of precincts counted. The result means Putin, 71, will overtake Joseph Stalin and become Russia’s longest-serving leader in more than 200 years. Communist candidate Nikolay Kharitonov came second with just under 4 percent, newcomer Vladislav Davankov third and ultra-nationalist Leonid Slutsky fourth, early results suggested. Nationwide turnout was 74.22 percent when polls closed, election officials said, surpassing 2018 levels of 67.5 percent. Putin’s victory was never in doubt as his critics are mostly in jail, in exile or dead, while public criticism of his leadership has been stifled. The Russian leader’s most prominent rival, Alexey Navalny, died in an Arctic prison last month. For Putin, a former KGB lieutenant colonel who first rose to power in 1999, the result is intended to underscore to the West that its leaders will have to reckon with an emboldened Russia, whether in war or in peace, for many more years to come. The United States said the vote was neither free nor fair. “The elections are obviously not free nor fair given how Mr. Putin has imprisoned political opponents and prevented others from running against him,” said the White House’s National Security Council spokesperson. United Kingdom Foreign Secretary David Cameron said in a post on X that the vote was “not what free and fair elections look like”. In Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, “This election fraud has no legitimacy and cannot have any”. The election came more than two years after Putin’s February 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II. On Sunday, thousands of Putin’s opponents staged a protest against him, although there was no independent tally of how many of Russia’s 114 million voters took part in the demonstrations. Supporters of Navalny had called on Russians to come out to a “Noon against Putin” protest. At his press conference, Putin referred to Navalny by name for the first time since his death, saying he had supported a proposal to release him in exchange for prisoners held in Western countries. “The person who was talking to me hadn’t finished his sentence and I said ‘I agree’,” Putin said. Putin was first nominated as acting president when former Russian President Boris Yeltsin resigned. He then won his first presidential election in March 2000 and a second term in 2004. After two stints as president, Putin switched back to being prime minister in 2008 to circumvent a constitutional ban on holding more than two consecutive terms as head of state. But he returned to the presidency in 2012 and won a fourth term in 2018. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/17/putin-poised-to-win-russian-presidential-election-by-a-landslide

Music title: مصطفى حفل بريطانيا | مشاري راشد العفاسي Signer: Alafasy Release date: 2024/01/04 Official YouTube link:

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No @El Máster Edwin?

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The current Nissan GT-R will be reportedly be discontinued following the 2025 model year, according to Japanese publication Mag X. The report claims that Nissan told Japanese dealers this will be the R35 generation's las year of production due to the inability to produce parts in the future. Mag X's report also claims that details about the 2025 Nissan GT-R will be shared tomorrow, March 14, and that only 1500 copies will be sold. UPDATE 3/14/24: Nissan today revealed the Japanese version of the 2025 GT-R. That along with the fact it will have a limited-production run was correctly predicted by last week's Mag X report, which claimed 2025 would be the R35 generation's last model year. While Nissan has yet to confirm the end of the GT-R's production or announce details about the U.S. model, the corroborating details give further credence to the rumors. The Nissan GT-R R35's run could be coming to an end, which wouldn't be all that surprising. The iconic Japanese sports car entered its current generation all the way back in 2009. While it has since received various updates, and its base price has increased by over $50K, the all-wheel-drive monster lovingly known as Godzilla is largely the same. However, 2025 might be its last model year if a report out of Japan is true. Mag X, a Japanese auto publication, last week claimed to have a scoop that Nissan will be discontinuing the R35-generation GT-R after next year. The original story, which CarBuzz last Friday first shared with English-speaking audiences, claims Nissan told Japanese dealers that the decision to end production of the current GT-R was due to the fact that the company won't be able to produce many of the car's parts in the future. While it remains to be seen if the Mag X report is true or not, we might not have to wait very long, as the outlet also claims that Nissan will reveal the 2025 GT-R tomorrow, March 14. The automaker's announcement will supposedly include details about the final model year's limited-production numbers. It's reported that only 1500 examples will be sold, with 300 of them said to be the high-performance NISMO variant. It's also not clear whether or not those are global production numbers. We reached out to one of Nissan's U.S. spokespersons regarding the report that the GT-R R35 will both end production after the 2025 model year and be limited to 1500 units. However, they told Car and Driver that they can't comment on future product plans. https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a60187946/2025-nissan-gt-r-r35-last-model-year-report/

Sjoeke Nüsken (second left) celebrates with her teammates after scoring Chelsea’s third goal. Photograph: Nigel French/PA No Sam Kerr, no Mia Fishel, no Mayra Ramírez, no Millie Bright, no Natalie Björn, no problem. An utterly rampant Chelsea dismantled Arsenal, scoring three goals in the space of 17 minutes to end the visitors’ title hopes and strengthen their own. A packed Stamford Bridge, this time with 32,970 fans, once again bore witness to the Lauren James show, with the mercurial forward scoring the home team’s first before Sjoeke Nüsken scored twice, helping take the sting off a bruising 24 hours for the manager, Emma Hayes, whose clumsy comments on player-player relationships had caused controversy. Chelsea, rattled? By injury, controversy or delay. Never. “We seem to do really well in adverse situations,” said Hayes. “It’s been a tough period, it’s been a tough day for us, but we’re good at this, we know how to do this … the team is 1,000% together in what we’re doing.” “Ready to work our socks off,” the Chelsea X account posted before kick-off, a cheeky nod to the sock clash fiasco that saw the start delayed by 30 minutes as Arsenal staff popped into the Chelsea megastore to pick up black away socks before taping over the Nike swooshes to avoid a brand clash with kit sponsors, Adidas. “I need to be very clear that it was the same for both teams and I will not make any excuses, that would be ridiculous,” said the Arsenal manager, Jonas Eidevall, afterwards. The delay was frustrating, but the atmosphere in Stamford Bridge built to a crescendo, club classics blaring and fans partying. The energy was high, and the home team entered the fray like they were fuelled up for a dance-heavy all-nighter. Hayes made six changes to the side that earned a 1-0 win over Everton to set up an FA Cup semi-final tie with Manchester United. Stamford Bridge starlet James was returned to the starting XI, alongside the goalkeeper Hannah Hampton, Guro Reiten, Melanie Leupolz, Niamh Charles and Kadeisha Buchanan. It had been nine days since Arsenal beat Aston Villa 4-0 to set up a mouthwatering League Cup final with Chelsea, but they were overrun by Hayes’s heavily rotated charges. There had been fears that Chelsea’s depleted squad had lost one too many players to injury, but the beauty of Hayes’s group is its strength in depth coupled with a versatility epitomised by Sunday’s centre-back Nüsken further forward five days later, and a relentless will to win. They didn’t just dismiss those doubting they could maintain a challenge on four fronts given the injuries, they buried them with a merciless tearing apart of a much fuller strength Arsenal side. Eidevall made three changes from the team that beat Aston Villa, with Kim Little, Caitlin Foord and Victoria Pelova all starting. Perhaps there had been an overconfidence among the previously swaggering Gunners, but was no let up at all for the visiting side, blue shirts were first to every ball, pressed high, harried and outmuscled Arsenal all over the park. The goal was coming and it was James that delivered, weaving to force an opening before forcing a save from Manuela Zinsberger that would loop behind her and in, for her eighth goal in four WSL games at Stamford Bridge. Things went from bad to worse for Arsenal five minutes later, with Leah Williamson playing Nüsken onside as she flicked in Erin Cuthbert’s effort from just inside the box. The Arsenal players gathered in a huddle, desperate to regroup, but they looked shellshocked by the intensity of a home team ready to make a decisive statement and exorcise the demons of a 4-1 loss at the Emirates Stadium in December. Just past the half-hour mark and Chelsea had their third, a deflection off Nüsken sending Johanna Rytting Kaneryd’s shot in this time. Chelsea 3-1 Arsenal: Women’s Super League – as it happened Read more Arsenal clawed back a consolation with four minutes of normal time remaining, Little’s strike taking a deflection off Catarina Macario as it flew in, but it was far too little, far too late. “This game has been taking 100% of my focus before, during and now after. The league table has not been, that is not where my energy goes,” said Eidevall when asked whether Arsenal’s title chances were over. With minutes remaining Hayes turned to her coaching staff, fist clenched and pumping, the goals may have dried up for the Blues of late, but this was an empathic statement of Chelsea’s ambitions. They move three points ahead of Manchester City in the league, with Gareth Taylor’s side playing Brighton on Sunday, and another critical step closer to a historic quadruple. Can they give Hayes the send-off she desires, as she bids farewell to the west London side in the summer? On this showing, maybe. https://www.theguardian.com/football/2024/mar/15/chelsea-sink-arsenal-to-make-major-move-in-wsl-title-race

Try not to dwell on what you feel is missing, but instead focus on the positive relationships and values you can nurture with your sons Every week Annalisa Barbieri addresses a family-related problem sent in by a reader Illustration: Alex Mellon/The Guardian I gave birth to my second son several months ago. In my first pregnancy I had no preference and was excited to find out I was expecting a boy, especially as my partner really wanted a son. Some of my closest friends also had boys. However, with my second child I had my heart set on a girl. When I learned we were expecting another boy, I was disappointed and began feeling less connected with and happy about the pregnancy. To make matters worse, the same friends have recently had, or are about to have, girls this time round. I have tried to reflect and understand why it is I wanted a daughter so badly. I am an only daughter and have a good relationship with both my parents, so the parent-daughter dynamic is the one I am familiar with. I think that deep down I wanted a chance to replicate the best bits of my upbringing with my own daughter. I also feel that I could have better related to a girl. I worry my sons will be closer to their father, especially as they get older. There is a strong taboo around this topic as there is the feeling that maybe you don’t love your child or are not grateful. I have only felt able to discuss my true feelings with my husband and my parents. I love both my children. I know I am in a very fortunate position. Yet I still can’t seem to get over the sadness of not having a daughter. I am disappointed in myself, but the truth is I am jealous and sad. Well done for being able to admit these feelings. You may be surprised to know you are not alone: the clinical psychologist I consulted this week, Dr Lindsay McMillan, specialises in parental gender disappointment and has an Instagram account dedicated to it. I wonder if there’s any point telling you that a lot of mothers and daughters don’t get on, but a lot of sons and mothers do. But really all of this comes later after you’ve worked through your own feelings of loss. In her experience Dr McMillan, who has seen many similar cases, says that “this is often about connection; perhaps wanting to carry on elements of an important relationship or a hope to repair the past by creating different, preferred experiences.” You’ve hinted at some of this already and realise that the answers lie in your own family history. Dr McMillan also said that “a longing for a daughter could be related to increased awareness of the inevitable future loss of your own mother, while you have become a mother yourself.” We wondered if this chimed with you? Dr McMillan also thought you “may be finding difficult to adjust from how you had imagined your life as a mother would be to how it is in reality. Perhaps worries around being on the outside with your friends or even within your own family. Ideas about how you might parent a daughter may feel more familiar, less so with how to navigate raising sons.” Dr McMillan also told me about ambiguous loss when we mourn something we never had: “Spending time thinking about a daughter means she has become psychologically present and so the not having, the absence of her and the relationship, is a loss which is not easily recognised by others.” Think about the relationship you want to have with your children, for you have the power to create this While it’s OK to feel the way you do, I would also like to add that it’s not a good idea to ever voice these feelings in front of your children. Such comments, even years later, can cause damage. “Your mind is alert to what you might miss out on in the future without a mother-daughter connection. But how can you nurture important elements of this, with your sons?” suggested Dr McMillan. “For example, being able to show care and kindness is genderless. How might you model, encourage and shape important values for your children? Gently remind yourself that, as a parent, you do have a lot of influence.” Having two children is tough. If you find your mood lowering or have difficulties bonding with your baby, please talk to someone about this. Dr McMillan recommended Parenthood in Mind for private therapists providing specialist perinatal support. These are real feelings you are having. Facing them and talking about them will help you process them. Then think about the relationship you want to have with your children, for you have the power to create this. Every week, Annalisa Barbieri addresses a personal problem sent in by a reader. If you would like advice from Annalisa, please send your problem to ask.annalisa@theguardian.com. Annalisa regrets she cannot enter into personal correspondence. Submissions are subject to our terms and conditions. Comments on this piece are premoderated to ensure the discussion remains on the topics raised by the article. Please be aware that there may be a short delay in comments appearing on the site. The latest series of Annalisa’s podcast is available here. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2024/mar/15/im-finding-it-hard-to-accept-that-i-may-never-have-a-daughter

A bull shark in Fiji seen in 2016. Photograph: Tom Vierus/livingdreams.tv Numbers of bull sharks, one of the largest and most aggressive ocean-dwelling predators, are thriving even as rising sea temperatures kill off other marine species, a study says. Researchers at Mississippi State University (MSU) found that the number of individual sharks, all juveniles, recorded per hour in Mobile Bay was five times higher in 2020 than at the start of the study period in 2003. The sea temperature there rose from an average 72.1F (22.3C) to 73.4F from 2001 to 2020, suggesting that bull sharks are beneficiaries of the climate emergency, according to the findings published this week in Scientific Reports. This news comes even as experts are warning of a “cataclysmic” mass-extinction event caused by record heat in the oceans. “It’s a really exciting study because it’s sort of contrary to that narrative we normally think, which is that for many species, warming water is a detriment,” Lindsay Mullins, the study’s lead author from the university’s coastal research center, told ABC News. “Despite these environmental changes that have been occurring on the Alabama coastline, such as urbanization and the warming waters over the last several decades, juvenile bull sharks have persisted and even grown during this timeframe.” The MSU researchers analyzed data from 440 bull sharks caught, tagged and released by Alabama’s department of conservation and natural resources during the 17-year period, and matched it to climatic information collected by remote sensors in Mobile Bay. The five-fold increase in abundance of bull sharks demonstrates the impact of changing environmental conditions, they say. “As climate change persists, coastal communities will continue to change, altering the structure of ecological communities and the success of nearshore fisheries,” the report says. Mullins also credits a robust and decades-long program of shark management by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) for keeping numbers buoyant in the face of growing environmental challenges. “The global outlook for sharks is still relatively grim because of overfishing, and unsustainable harvesting, being caught as bycatch,” she said. “But the US is unique in that it has a really successful rebound story where sharks have been properly managed, and we’ve actually seen the recovery of a lot of species.” Male bull sharks can grow up to 12ft (3.7 meters) and weigh 500lb (227kg), and are extremely territorial. The species was classed “vulnerable” by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s red list in 2020. According to the University of Florida’s international shark attack file (ISAF), coastal-dwelling bull sharks are considered by many to be the most dangerous in the world, responsible for several dozen confirmed human fatalities globally, and suspected of countless other attacks. Last month, a 16-year-old girl was killed by a bull shark in a river in Perth, Australia, and in January a woman was seriously injured while swimming in Sydney harbor. The number of shark-bite deaths from all species doubled in 2023 to 10 from the previous year, a figure the ISAF research director, Gavin Naylor, called “unnerving”. Despite the increased prevalence of bull sharks suggested by the MSU study, there is no parallel growth in the threat to humans, Mullins said. “The increase in abundance is not going to lead to an increase in shark bites. People who read the article may be concerned [but] it’s important to remember that these changes in abundance are relatively gradual, and have been already increasing over the last several decades,” she said. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/mar/15/bull-shark-climate-change

A Palestinian stands at the site of an Israeli attack on a house in Rafah in southern Gaza [Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters] Hamas has presented a new ceasefire plan to end Israel’s war on Gaza that includes the release of Israeli captives in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, 100 of whom are serving life sentences. It would be a three-phased ceasefire, with each stage lasting 42 days, sources told Al Jazeera of the Hamas proposal. In the first stage, Hamas said Israeli forces must withdraw from al-Rashid and Salah al-Din streets to allow for the return of displaced Palestinians and the passage of aid, the sources said. Salah al-Din is the main arterial road that runs north to south in the strip. The Palestinian armed group said the initial release of Israelis would include women, children, the elderly and ill captives in exchange for 700 to 1,000 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails, according to the proposal seen by the Reuters news agency. It includes the freeing of Israeli “female recruits”. Hamas said 50 Palestinian prisoners of its choosing – 30 of whom are serving life sentences – should be freed in exchange for the release of one female Israeli reservist held captive in Gaza, sources told Al Jazeera. The group said in the second phase of the plan a permanent ceasefire must be declared before any exchange of captured soldiers could begin, while the third stage would involve initiating a reconstruction process in Gaza and lifting Israel’s siege on the enclave. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Thursday that the new proposal was still based on “unrealistic demands”. Israel’s war cabinet and the larger security cabinet were to meet later on Friday to discuss the proposal, which Hamas submitted to international mediators. Reporting from occupied East Jerusalem, Al Jazeera’s Willem Marx said: “The central sticking point in Israel and Hamas’s negotiations, which has been an irreconcilable challenge for both parties in recent weeks, is essentially Israel’s demand for an absolute victory over Hamas, contrasted with Hamas’s desire for a permanent ceasefire.” Days of negotiations with Hamas this month over a ceasefire in Gaza failed to achieve a breakthrough before the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan this week – the informal deadline for a deal. Mediators Qatar, Egypt and the United States spent weeks trying to narrow differences between Israel and Hamas over what a ceasefire would look like as a deepening humanitarian crisis has a quarter of the po[CENSORED]tion in the battered Gaza Strip facing famine. Egypt is seeking to reach a ceasefire in Gaza, ramp up aid deliveries to the strip and allow for displaced Palestinians in the south and centre of the enclave to move to the north, President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi said on Friday. “We are talking about reaching a ceasefire in Gaza, meaning a truce, providing the biggest quantity of aid,” he said. El-Sisi warned against the dangers of an Israeli incursion into Rafah in southern Gaza on the border with Egypt, which is now home to more than half of the enclave’s po[CENSORED]tion of 2.3 million people, many of whom have been displaced multiple times. Marx reported that “the Israelis also say they’d like to keep a potential invasion of Rafah open as an option, but Hamas, if they push forward with the negotiations, say they would like to see all hostilities end as soon as possible.” Israel has long warned of a ground invasion of Rafah, an area of 64sq km (25sq miles) into which about 1.4 million Palestinians have been crammed by Israeli bombing and ground operations in other parts of the enclave. Mustafa Barghouti, secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative, told Al Jazeera on Friday that the latest proposal is “much more flexible and forthcoming” compared with previous ones. “The most important thing of dispute here is that Hamas and the resistance movement insists that people who were evicted by force, by bombardment from their homes, will be allowed to go back to the north and Israel wants to discriminate [against them],” he said. “Imagine – they want to allow women and children but not the men. They want to cut every family into two pieces, and that is unacceptable.” Barghouti said he expects Netanyahu to impose “every possible obstacle to prevent this deal from taking place because he knows that once this war is over, he will be going to prison. He knows very well that he will be accused of failure on October 7, but also four cases of corruption are waiting for him.” Hamas said ceasefire negotiations had faltered over the past few weeks due to Netanyahu’s rejection of its demands, which include a permanent ceasefire, an Israeli withdrawal from the strip, the return of the displaced in the south of the enclave to the centre and the north, and stepping up aid without restrictions. In February, Hamas received a proposal from truce talks in Paris, which included a 40-day pause in all military operations and the exchange of Palestinian prisoners for Israeli captives at a ratio of 10-to-1 – a similar ratio to that in the new ceasefire proposal. Israel rejected that plan, citing its long-held goal of not ending the war until it destroys Hamas. The war was triggered by Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel on October 7, in which 1,139 people were killed, according to Israeli officials, and dozens were taken captive. Since then, Israel’s air, sea and ground assault on Gaza has killed more than 31,000 Palestinians and wounded more than 71,500, according to Palestinian health authorities. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/15/hamas-new-gaza-truce-proposal-outlines-exchange-of-captives-for-prisoners

Beijing has not ruled out using force to annex Taiwan, but there is little appetite for war among Chinese people. People in Xiamen said they supported unification but did not want conflict. The sign reads 'One country, two systems, unify China' and is visible from Taiwan's Kinmen islands [File: Greg Baker/AFP] “It is difficult to imagine that this used to be a warzone,” 23-year-old *Shao Hongtian told Al Jazeera as he wandered along a beach near the city of Xiamen on China’s southeast coast. Halting by the water’s edge where gentle waves lapped against the sand, Shao gestured beyond the shallows towards the sea and the Kinmen archipelago – now peaceful, but in the 1940s and 1950s, a battleground. The communists won the Chinese Civil War in 1949, and the nationalists of the Kuomintang (KMT) fled Beijing for the island of Taiwan. It was on Kinmen, the main island of the archipelago of the same name, less than 10km (6.2 miles) from the coast of China, that the nationalists repulsed repeated communist invasion attempts, but not before the fighting had wreaked havoc on both Xiamen and Kinmen. Kinmen and its outlying islets – some of which lie even closer to the Chinese coast – have been a part of Taiwan’s territory ever since. Chinese citizens like Shao were once able to get tourist visas to visit the islands, but that ended with the pandemic. “Kinmen, China and Taiwan are all part of the same nation, so it should be possible to visit, and I hope I can visit one day,” Shao said over a video connection – his eyes fixed on Kinmen. Like Shao, Chinese President Xi Jinping and the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) claim that Taiwan and its territory are part of China. Defences line the beaches of Kinmen where nationailsts beat back the communists in the wake of the 1949 civil war [File: Ann Wang/Reuters] Xi said in his New Year’s address that China’s unification with democratic Taiwan was an “historical inevitability“, and China has not ruled out the use of force to achieve unification. Last year Xi called on China’s armed forces to strengthen their combat readiness. In recent years the Chinese military has increased its pressure on Taiwan with almost daily airborne and maritime incursions close to Taiwan’s air and sea space. At times of particular tension, such as during the visit of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taipei, such manoeuvres have been accompanied by sabre-rattling rhetoric and large-scale military drills. Capsized boats, recriminations Recently, tensions have been rising near Kinmen as well. In February, two Chinese fishermen were killed when their speedboat capsized as they attempted to flee the Taiwanese coastguard when they were discovered fishing “within prohibited waters” about one nautical mile (1.8km) from the Kinmen archipelago. Since then, the Chinese coastguard has stepped up its activities around Kinmen. Zhu Fenglian, a spokesperson for the Chinese government’s Taiwan Affairs Office, said the February incident was “vicious” and stressed the waters were “traditional” fishing grounds for fishermen in China and Taiwan. There were no off-limits waters around Kinmen, she added. A second capsize was reported on Thursday, and on this occasion China asked for help from the Taiwan coastguard. Standing on the beach looking out towards Kinmen, Shao says hostilities are not the way to bring China and Taiwan together. “I want unification to happen peacefully,” he said. If that is not possible, he would prefer things to remain as they are. Soldiers pay tribute to the fallen during a 2023 ceremony commemorating the 65th anniversary of China’s attack on Kinmen island [File: Chiang Ying-ying/Reuters] He knows that many of his friends feel the same way. According to Shao, if they go to Kinmen and Taiwan, it should be as visitors, not as fighters. “The Taiwanese haven’t done anything bad to us, so why should we go there to fight them?” he said, convinced that any war between China and Taiwan would result in significant casualties on both sides. “Unification with Taiwan is not worth a war.” No appetite for war A study published by the University of California San Diego’s 21st Century China Center last year suggests that Shao and his friends are not alone in opposing a war over Taiwan. The study explored Chinese public support for different policy steps regarding unification with Taiwan and found that launching a full-scale war to achieve unification was viewed as unacceptable by a third of the Chinese respondents. Only one percent rejected all other options but war, challenging the Chinese government’s assertion that the Chinese people were willing to “go to any length and pay any price” to achieve unification. Mia Wei, a 26-year-old marketing specialist from Shanghai is not surprised by such results. “Ordinary Chinese people are not pushing the government to get unification,” she told Al Jazeera. “It is the government that pushes people to believe that there must be unification.” At the same time, support for a unification war turned out to be close to the same level found in similar studies from earlier years, indicating that despite the growing tension in the Taiwan Strait and renewed talk about taking control of Taiwan, there has not been a corresponding increase in support for more forceful measures. Wei believes that Chinese like herself are more concerned with developments inside their country. “First there was COVID, then the economy got bad and then the housing market got even worse,” she said. “I think Chinese people have their minds on more important things than unification with Taiwan.” According to Associate Professor Yao-Yuan Yeh who teaches Chinese Studies at the University of St Thomas in the United States, there is currently little reason for Chinese people to be more supportive of conflict with Taiwan. US President Joe Biden has on several occasions said the US will defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion. At the same time, the US has been strengthening its military ties with countries such as Japan and the Philippines – Taiwan’s immediate neighbours to the north and the south. “There is no guarantee of a quick victory in a war over Taiwan,” Yeh told Al Jazeera. “Also, many people in China have business partners, friends and family in Taiwan, and therefore don’t want to see any harm come to the island and its people.” The study also showed that young Chinese were more averse towards forceful policy measures than earlier generations. “Young people are usually among the first to be sent to the battlefield so naturally they are more opposed to war,” Yeh said. Shao from Xiamen thinks that any hope of victory in a war over Taiwan and its partners will require the mobilisation of a lot of young people like him. “And I think many young people in China [will] refuse to die in an attack on Taiwan.” Not an issue for debate Regardless of what Chinese people might think, unifying Taiwan with the mainland will remain a cornerstone of the CCP’s narrative, according to Eric Chan who is a senior fellow at the Global Taiwan Institute in Washington, DC. “Unification is not a topic that is up for any sort of debate with the general public,” he told Al Jazeera. China has become increasingly assertive in its claim over Taiwan and has not ruled out the use of force to achieve its aims [File: Andy Wong/AP Photo] Although the Chinese leadership often claims that China is a democratic country where the party is guided by the will of the Chinese people, there are no regular national elections or free media while online discourse is restricted and regularly censored. Speaking out against the CCP can also result in criminal convictions. Since Xi became president in 2012, crackdowns on civil liberties have intensified, and Xi has centralised power around himself to a degree unprecedented since the rule of Mao Zedong – the man who led the communists to victory against the nationalists and became communist China’s first leader. During Mao’s rule, reforms and purges of Chinese society led to the deaths of millions of Chinese people, while upwards of 400,000 Chinese soldiers died as a result of his decision to enter the 1950-1953 Korean War on North Korea’s side. But according to Chan, the days when a Chinese leader could expend tens of thousands of lives in such a manner are over. Recent government actions that exacted a heavy toll on citizens led to public pushback, and Xi did not appear immune. During the COVID pandemic, Xi ardently defended the country’s zero-COVID policy even though its mass testing and strict lockdowns had dire socioeconomic consequences. The government eventually abandoned the policy as the economy sank, and people took to the streets across China’s major cities demanding an end to the lockdowns, even calling for Xi to step down. As for war, the circumstances are also different. Unlike, for example, the Sino-Indian War of 1962 and the Sino-Vietnamese War of 1979, a battle for Taiwan would be existential for the communist party and Xi, according to Chan. “The party (CCP) would not have been threatened by a loss or high casualties in those wars,” he said. Today, Xi would need to assume that those types of losses would be unacceptable to the Chinese people, he added. Public outrage over a long unification war that might even end in a Chinese defeat could, in Chan’s view, endanger the party’s rule. Mindful of the mood of the Chinese people, Chan sees the CCP instead continuing to engage in low-cost grey zone operations against Taiwan while developing a Chinese military that would be able to score a swift victory. For Shao, however, any attempt to settle the issue through conflict would be a disaster. “I don’t think it will end well for anyone – not for those that have to fight it and not for the government that starts it,” he said. *Shao’s name has been changed to respect his wish for anonymity given the sensitivity of the topic. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/15/for-many-chinese-there-are-more-important-things-than-taiwan-unification

Music title: تلك الدار الأخرة | الشيخ مشاري العفاسي والشيخ سعيد الكملي | برنامج آية وحكاية 3 Signer: Alafasy Release date: 2024/03/11 Official YouTube link: