The Sopranos debuted more than 20 years ago, and you’d have to be a fan to get the best from this prequel movie. And you’d need to be a superfan to get all the connections. But The Many Saints Of Newark stands alone as a worthy addition to the Mafia movie pantheon.
Read more here Daily Express :: Films Feed
Over 3.4 million novel coronavirus cases and more than 56,000 deaths were registered worldwide in the past week, the World Health Organization (WHO) said a weekly bulletin released in Geneva early on Wednesday, Trend reports with reference to Reuters.
“The global number of new cases reported last week (12-18 July 2021) was over 3.4 million, a 12% increase as compared to the previous week,” the global organization said in its COVID-19 Weekly Epidemiological Update.
More than 56,000 people died in the reported period, up 1% from the previous week.
On July 12-18, the global organization was informed of 3,429,645 new cases all over the world, and 56,767 COVID-related deaths. As of July 18, a total of 190,169,833 cases of the infection and 4,086,000 COVID-related fatalities have been reported worldwide.
Last week, case incidence declined in Africa (down 5%). At the same time, Africa the growth was reported in Western Pacific (up 30%), Europe (up 21%), Southeast Asia (16%) and Eastern Mediterranean (15%). Mortality increased in Southeast Asia (up 12%) and Western Pacific (up 10%), but declined in North and South America (down 6%) and Africa (down 4%).
In the past seven days, over 885,000 people contracted the infection in Europe, over 7,000 patients died. The number of cases in the North and South America increased by over 967,000 in the reported period, while fatalities grew by about 22,000. In Southeast Asia, doctors registered over 829,000 new cases of the novel coronavirus, over 16,000 patients died.
The largest number of cases registered in the past seven days was reported by Indonesia (350,273), followed by the United Kingdom (296,447), Brazil (287,610), India (268,843) and the United States (216,433).
According to the WHO bulletin, the highly contagious Delta strain, first discovered in India in October 2020, has been detected in 124 countries (compared to 111 countries last week).
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This post originally posted here Trend – News from Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Iran and Turkey.
If a person begins to take money from their pension pot, the amount they can pay into a pension and still receive tax relief on may reduce.
The tax charge is one many people will be keen to avoid, but could trigger without even realising it.
Mr Tully continued: “The Money Purchase Annual Allowance will unwittingly catch out ‘pension dippers’ who want to continue working, given the prevalence of workplace pension schemes.
“The MPAA is an arbitrary allowance which is easy to increase or remove altogether, and would allow savers to rebuild their pensions, especially in light of the pandemic and resulting uncertainty created.”
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This post originally posted here Daily Express :: Finance Feed
Spain’s left-wing coalition government approved a draft bill that outlaws supporters of the late dictator. The legislation applies to anyone who expressed support for General Francisco Franco and “denigrates or demeans the dignity of the victims” of the Spanish civil war (1936 -1939).
Francisco Franco was in power for nearly 40 years after winning a civil war against Republican forces.
The new bill could lead to the removal of the Francisco Franco Foundation, which has kept his legacy alive.
But the foundation issued a statement denouncing the bill and labelling it “unconstitutional”.
It said: “No one will be able to erase the enormous significance of Francisco Franco and his time both for what he avoided and for his achievements.
“This law is illegitimate and unconstitutional.”
Far-right Vox party, the third largest party in Spain’s parliament, said it would fight the bill in a legal process.
The bill is now set to go before Spain’s parliament for a vote, more than 80 years after the end of the civil war that left at least 500,000 dead.
It will impose penalties of between €200 and €150,000 to anyone who destroys evidence of burial pits or shows support for the dictatorship.
Félix Bolaños, minister for democratic memory, expressed his support for the bill during a press conference.
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This post originally posted here Daily Express :: World Feed
More than 427,000 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus infection were registered worldwide in the past day, with the overall number of such cases exceeding 190 million, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in its daily bulletin on Monday, Trend reports citing TASS.
As of 19:42 (GMT+4) on July 19, as many as 190,597,409 novel coronavirus cases and 4,093,145 coronavirus-associated deaths were registered across the globe. The number of confirmed cases grew by 427,576 in the past 24 hours and the number of fatalities increased by 7,145.
The WHO statistics is based on officially confirmed data from the countries.
Europe accounts for more than 28% of the COVID-19 daily tally (120,291 cases). Next are Southeast Asia (104,377) and North and South America (97,876 cases).
The biggest number of coronavirus cases was reported from the United States (33,723,155), India (31,144,229), Brazil (19,342,448), Russia (5,982,766), France (5,749,620), Turkey (5,529,719), the United Kingdom (5,433,943), Argentina (4,749,443), Colombia (4,621,260), Spain (4,492,066), Italy (4,287,458), and Germany (3,745,227).
The biggest number of fatalities was reported from the United States (603,790), Brazil (641,266), India (414,108), Mexico (236,240), Peru (195,047), Russia (149,138), the United Kingdom (128,708), Italy (127,867), Colombia (115,831), France (110,497), Argentina (101,434), and Germany (91,363).
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This post originally posted here Trend – News from Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Iran and Turkey.
The former glamour model, who first campaigned to tackle online abuse when she launched a petition to criminalise internet bullying in 2017, told her Twitter followers that the “vile racist abuse” directed towards England players “proves” her “petition is more important than ever”. Price, 43, has called on the Government to introduce new rules that would ensure social media accounts are linked to verified forms of identification. Proponents believe this will help “prevent anonymised harmful activity”, including abuse directed against Price’s teenage son Harvey.
Last month, Price took a 52-year-old man to court after he had shared a blackface video mocking Harvey, who suffers from Prader-Willi syndrome and autism, on his Twitter account.
The “track a troll” petition, launched in March 2021, has already received a response from the Government after it obtained ten thousand signatures.
The Government said: “User ID verification for social media could disproportionately impact vulnerable users and interfere with freedom of expression”.
“Anonymity”, the response continued”, “underpins people’s fundamental right to express themselves and access information online in a liberal democracy”.
However, following England’s heartbreaking penalty shoot-out defeat against Italy in the Euro 2020 final at Wembley, support for Price’s petition has increased to more than 650,000, the most of any open e-petition on the UK Government and Parliament website.
Marcus Rashford, 23, Jadon Sancho, 21, and Bukayo Saka, 19, all missed their spot kicks after England manager, Gareth Southgate, nominated them to take on the Italian goalkeeper, Gianluigi Donnarumma, in the penalty shoot-out on Sunday.
Research by Channel 4 News found that almost two thousand discriminatory and abusive comments were posted against the England trio and their teammate Raheem Sterling on Twitter, with an additional 167 posts considered to constitute “high risk” abuse.
READ MORE:England star Maguire says his dad was injured during Wembley stampede
And Price has already been liaising with politicians about how Britain can tackle online abuse in the future.
Yesterday, she met with Conservative MPs Siobhan Baillie and Andrew Griffith to discuss ways to prevent online trolling.
“We all agree”, Price told her 1.8 million Twitter followers, “that anonymous abuse on social media has been left unchecked for far too long”.
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This post originally posted here Daily Express :: UK Feed
Author: Aya Elamroussi, CNN
Read more here >>> CNN.com – RSS Channel – HP Hero
England’s 4-0 victory over Ukraine sets up a semi-final match against Denmark on Wednesday at Wembley Stadium.
Harry Kane scored twice as a buoyant England cruised through to the semi-finals of Euro 2020 with a one-sided 4-0 win over Ukraine in Rome on Saturday.
Kane ended a worrying international scoring drought by netting in the 2-0 last-16 defeat of Germany in midweek and he put England ahead inside four minutes on a sweaty evening in the Italian capital.
Gareth Southgate’s side then put this quarter-final tie out of sight with two more goals early in the second half, one from Harry Maguire before Kane netted again.
Substitute Jordan Henderson got the fourth, and as Denmark lie in wait in the Wembley semi-final on Wednesday England will be confident of going on to reach a first ever European Championship final and even now claiming a first major international title since 1966.
The draw here was kind for them, with Ukraine surely as weak an opponent as they could hope to face in a quarter-final, a stage at which they have lost to the likes of Italy and Portugal in recent European Championships.
However the statistics are impressive, with England having come through five games at this tournament all without conceding a goal.
England’s Harry Kane scores their first goal [Alberto Pizzoli/Pool via Reuters]Some of their play in wide areas was outstanding, with Raheem Sterling and Jadon Sancho – making his first start at the Euro – too hot for Ukraine to handle.
Kane, their captain, had gone close to eight hours without finding the net for his country but his opener here was his second in just eight minutes following the late strike that secured victory over Germany.
Regardless of the opposition, their display at the Stadio Olimpico was a step-up in class in the final third to previous games at the Euro and they will be favourites at home against a Danish side who played their own quarter-final against the Czech Republic on Saturday in distant Baku.
This will be the only match England play away from home in the competition and it marked quite a difference to their defeat of the Germans, which was watched by more than 40,000 supporters at Wembley, where coronavirus restrictions were eased.
With Italy currently imposing a five-day quarantine on all arrivals from the United Kingdom, the number of England fans in Rome was limited to those already based in the European Union although they still made themselves heard in the crowd of under 12,000.
They had plenty to celebrate, unlike their Ukrainian counterparts, as Andriy Shevchenko’s team came up short in their bid to take the country to a first ever major tournament semi-final.
They scraped out of their group and then edged 10-man Sweden in extra time in the last 16, and their chances of shocking England looked dead and buried when they fell behind early on.
Sterling, who terrorised the Ukraine defence down the left, played in Kane who poked the ball past Georgiy Bushchan.
England fans celebrate in Trafalgar Square after the match [Henry Nicholls/Reuters]Ukraine’s giant striker Roman Yaremchuk forced a save from Jordan Pickford and a Declan Rice piledriver was kept out by Bushchan, with England looking comfortable.
However Ukraine were a different proposition after injured defender Serhiy Kryvtsov was replaced by Dynamo Kiev winger Viktor Tsygankov in the 36th minute.
They finished the first half strongly and more pessimistic England fans may have spent the interval reliving their exit from Euro 2016, when they lost to Iceland in the last 16 despite also having opened the scoring in the fourth minute.
They need not have worried.
England scored again less than a minute after the restart when a foul on Kane allowed Luke Shaw to deliver a free-kick from the left for Maguire to head in.
Four minutes after that Sterling supplied the overlapping Shaw and he crossed for a rejuvenated Kane to head home.
The Tottenham star nearly had his hat-trick, a stinging volley producing a fine save from Bushchan.
From Mason Mount’s resulting corner came the fourth goal, another header, this time from Henderson, the first of five substitutes sent on by Southgate who would have been thinking about the semi-final long before this quarter-final was officially over.
Author:
Read more here >>> Al Jazeera – Breaking News, World News and Video from Al Jazeera
When Pat McGarvey assumed the role of Austin City Administrator in 1992, one thing was very apparent to him: Austin needed a new public library.
“It was very dated and quite small for the size of the city,” he said of the old Carnegie Library, which was located near Austin High School. “You were limited with what you could do.”
The efforts to build a new public library were ultimately successful. On Wednesday, the Austin Public Library celebrated its silver anniversary with a party to commemorate where it has been, what it has been involved with, and where it’s going.
And it all began as a community effort.
“Once I was in office for a while and got to meet several people, I sat down one night with the Library Board and said, ‘In my opinion, Austin needs a new library,’” McGarvey recalled. “I thought I was going to get a standing ovation. I said I thought the (city) council supported one, but the $ 64 question was how much is it going to cost and how are you going to pay for it.”
Building a new library was not going to be an easy task. Two prior referendum votes for a new library failed to pass. But some influential people, such as I.J. Holton and Nancy Knowlton, offered to help.
“They and all of the people they knew said they were ready to help and would step up with the city folks because I couldn’t do it on my own,” McGarvey said. “They said they would get the council on board.”
From there, the Meyer, Scherer & Rockcastle, Ltd. architectural firm of Minneapolis was hired to draw up a design.
“We said we wanted a nice building, not just a garage; this is going to last 100 years,” McGarvey said. “They came up with a preliminary design and an artist in the Twin Cities painted a picture based on the architect’s renderings. Mr. Holton used that to convince people to donate.”
But as funds were raised, the question remained as to where the new building would be located.
“The thought at the time was we would tear down the old one and build a bigger one on the spot, but it didn’t have much space beyond that for parking,” McGarvey said.
From there, the city looked at the area between Mill Pond and Fourth Avenue Northeast, next to the power plant. At the time, that area was in bad shape; an old warehouse that had been tax forfeited to the State of Minnesota sat on the spot, as did a bus garage used by the Austin school district. A house also stood on the spot next to the power plant.
“From the city attorney, we found out it belonged to an elderly couple and they were ready to sell,” McGarvey said.
The City was able to purchase the old warehouse for $ 1 and the HRA bought out and relocated the bus garage. The City had its spot, but the Library Board needed convincing that the area could be much nicer.
“They were concerned with putting a brand new building in an area that was not in great shape,” McGarvey said. “The council had to convince them that if (the library) happened, other things would happen. At the time, we were thinking of putting that trail around Mill Pond and making it one of the premier parks in Austin. So we were putting together two projects at the same time.”
And now, 25 years later, the vision of those individuals still continues to go strong.
“I was in (the library) Monday and I really liked it,” McGarvey said. “I like the new colors that have been introduced into it.
“I think it’s even prettier than when it was brand new.”
P25
With 25 years done, the Library Board and Austin Public Library staff are planning for the next 25 years.
During Wednesday’s celebration, attendees were able to learn more about P25, a project that will allow the library to expand and adapt over the next quarter of a century.
“Libraries have changed in 25 years, and we will probably change quite a bit more in the next 25 years,” said Austin Public Library Director Julie Clinefelter. “This project is many years in the making. When I started as director, I was asked to do a strategic plan. In that process, we talked to a lot of people in the community.”
Among the feedback received from the community was a desire for more programming space.
“One of the big things that we looked into was having a project room with a cement floor, and what we’re looking into is something that will be where the patio is outside,” Clinefelter said. “We want a garage door on it so we can get in and out. Everything in the library is carpeted and trying to do projects with kids and carpet is a bad combination. You can’t do gardening classes or cooking classes.”
Another item the community wanted was a free meeting space.
“It’s really hard to find too many places in town where you can have a meeting without purchasing something or paying,” Clinefelter said. “We want to expand our meeting spaces.”
Clinefelter also said she plans to update the library’s service area.
The original plan was to kick off the P25 plan on March 26, 2020, with the goal of having changes implemented by the 25th anniversary. But like so many things, the COVID-19 pandemic put a temporary stop to any further plans.
“When things started to come back online, we asked where are we now,” Clinefelter said. “As it turns out, all of the things we planned for are still pertinent, if not more.”
The City has committed some money to the plan. The library is also seeking to raise funds.
“There are some grants out there that we’ve looked into and are hoping to get to help with the process,” Clinefelter said.
The goal of P25 is to make the library as versatile as possible for the future.
“This is a great building; the people who put it together planned it really well,” Clinefelter said. “The open space is amazing and it is really very versatile. We want to make sure it’s ready for the next 25 years.”
“Everything that was questioned and debated 25 years ago has turned out, in my mind, as good as we could have ever expected,” McGarvey said.
Author: Mike Stoll
Read more here >>> Austin Daily Herald
Over the last 60 years that Coronation Street has been on our screens, characters have been and gone, and some have captured the hearts of fans.
And, some of those captivating characters have raised the heat in our living rooms, The Mirror reports.
The soap has welcomed lots of eye candy to the set over the years, but one actress has called out the show saying there is not enough heat on set.
Corrie star Rachel Leskovac said that the soap has not got enough hot male totty for her character Natasha to find a new love interest.
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Could she be right? Is Corrie a fit-free zone?
We look back on the catches of the cobbles over the years – for looks, personality, humour and bad boy mystique…
His good looks and soulful singing won him The X-Factor in 2005, so when Shayne joined the cobbles as heart-throb Aidan, his popstar looks and designer stubble could have got him his pick of Underworld’s machinists. Instead he ended up with vixen Eva Price and gorgeous Aidan ended up taking his own life.
Mechanic Brian’s grubby overalls got mums all hot under their bonnets.
The mullet-haired pin-up wed Gail and fathered Nick and Sarah Louise, but was stabbed to death at a nightclub. Coincidentally, actor Quentin’s career also came to an end when he got a job at Stringfellows.
Hottie hardman Callum was a violent, criminal drug dealer who caused chaos on the cobbles. The evil, blackmailing ex-lag, played by Sean Ward, tried to take his biological son Max from his mum Kylie and extort money from the Platts.
Clearly all he needed was the love of a good woman – instead he got a wrench in his head and buried under the extension.
Originally the buff bod in the Body Impulse Spray adverts, model actor Matthew became the cobbles eye candy as car mechanic Chris before he left for a Hollywood career in movies such as Black Hawk Down.
Singer Madonna was rumoured to have asked him for a date, but he turned her down saying he spent enough time with old bangers.
A member of the 90s boy band Boyzone, Irish charmer Ciaran pulled pints – and ladies – as bar man in the Rovers. He even got himself arrested to avoid marrying Sunita, which would have been an even longer sentence.
Hero Ciaran also tried to help abused Shelley, but was sacked for his troubles.
Sexy older man Danny turned out to be Mike Baldwin’s secret son. No stranger to the marital bed – other people’s that is – Danny left his first wife for the babysitter, then ran off with his son’s girlfriend.
When his son then had an affair with his second wife, viewers wondered if Weatherfield had moved to Alabama.
Devilishly handsome and owner of a kebab shop, Dev is a cobbles catch. His wife Sunita divorced him when she found out he’d been giving his employees a little something extra in their pay-packets – like a baby.
The sexy shopkeeper also had a knee trembler with Deirdre, who looked demure, but had more fresh man meat on the soap than one of Betty’s hotpots.
Hunky Jason joined the cobbles and proceeded to work his way through the young women.
The buff builder got into a love triangle with Sarah Platt and barmaid Violet, then left the show to pursue other roles.
Suave, sophisticated gentleman escort Lewis stole Audrey’s heart – as well as the bookies money. Over the years the charmer kept turning up like a bad penny, duping people out of cash including Gail, but thankfully he died before Audrey could be stupid enough to fall for his lies yet again.
Luckily for us ladies, car mechanic Nathan’s hobby was stripping down to his boxers for a few rounds in the ring.
The punchy star was played by velvet-voiced Shakespearean stage actor Roy Fearon, which means he was used to unbelievable storylines including not noticing his own surname had been changed.
Street Cars supremo Steve started on the show as one of Jim and Liz’s fresh-faced twin boys.
He became one half of the Posh and Becks of the cobbles and twice wed Karen McDonald until Tracey Barlow got her claws into him.
But having now been married seven times to five different women, unsurprisingly Steve is getting a bit frayed around the edges.
Hard to believe that this portly, middle-aged soap baddie was a Jack the Lad in his heyday but for some he was irresistible.
Vera and Jack’s ex-lag son Terry has climbed the greasy pole and fallen down to earth with a bang more times than a lap dancer in his skanky Se7enth Hea7en club.
Mums loved Curly and his little boy looks, while girls thought he was a wet fish with a floppy fringe.
But the unlucky-in-love Bettabuy manager had the last laugh when he pulled barmaid Raquel and became the patron saint of punching above your weight.
The youngest of the Barlow Boys – and arguably the best-looking – Ken’s grandson Adam (and Mike Baldwin’s son) has also spent an inordinate amount of time in Canada, where I like to think there’s a parallel Corrie.
Like his old dad, Adam has spent too much time in ladies underwear, but he’s wed Sarah Platt and retrained as a solicitor.
A hot priest with a murderous past, Billy (Daniel Brocklebank) became Sean Tully’s lover when he met him in a nightclub, but left him for bad boy Todd Grimshaw.
Although it’s not clear which part of this good-looking vicar’s violent, drug-taking past makes him the ideal moral guardian for young Summer.
We all hated evil, womanising bully Charlie for controlling and manipulating the nation’s sweetheart and Rovers landlady Shelley.
But the good-looking monster met his match in Tracy Barlow when she tried to kill him with a lap dance, and when that didn’t work, clocked him over the head with a statue.
Imran Habeeb (Charlie De Melo)
The other half of Adam’s Barlow Legal Services, or Barely Legal Services as it should be known, suave solicitor Imran is seeking justice for the Underworld roof collapsing and killing his sister Rana.
As if that wasn’t enough bad luck, sharply-turned out Imran, played by former EastEnders actor Charlie, has been bedding the other Battersby sort, Toyah.
Handsome jailbird Joe had the perfect qualifications – two years for fraud – to run the undies factory.
The bad boy scam artist and Karen McDonald become the Bonnie and Clyde of the Underworld and set up a dummy company to steal cash – but the real dummy was Mike for trusting him in the first place.
Grease monkey Kev’s mullet and ‘tache made him a gay icon in the 80s.
The now-silver fox, single dad wed Sally twice but lost two partners in transport mishaps – one under a lorry and the other in a tram crash. One is a misfortune – two looks like car-lessness!
Tall, dark and handsome, it’s hard to believe Peter is Ken Barlow’s son. Mainly because he was played by six different actors before actor Chris arrived on the cobbles.
Now waiting on an organ donation, some would say hard-drinking Peter is heartless, but it’s actually a new liver he needs.
Author: [email protected] (Siobhan McNally, Lucy Marshall)
This post originally appeared on Hull Live – Celebs & TV
