China’s economic activity gathered pace in August amid a summer travel boom and in the wake of a

Ukrainian special forces rescued a number of Russian soldiers from flooding after the Kakhovka dam was destroyed. Footage shows boats picking up the four men, who were trapped “up to their necks” when water inundated their trench. “The Russian soldiers were already weakened and close to death,” Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence wrote, sharing the footage on social media. Other Russians occupying the area began to shoot at the boat from nearby positions during the rescue, according to Ukraine’s MoD. The rescued soldiers were then taken back to the Ukrainian base and added to the prisoner of war “exchange fund”. Read More The Body in the Woods | An Independent TV Original Documentary The harrowing discovery at centre of The Independent’s new documentary

The Big 12 will likely be expanding again soon, possibly adding the UConn Huskies for hoops.While conference realignment has more to do with the moneymaker that is college football than anything, it is also advantageous to kick the tires on major college basketball brands such as the UConn Huski...

IRVINE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sep 7, 2023--

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said on Monday that Turkey has agreed to back Sweden's bid to join the military alliance.

Manchester United were pointless and headed for humiliation. As Brentford scored four goals in a half – and the first half at that – and Erik ten Hag’s reign began amid farce, a footballer who had starred in four Champions League final victories reached for his phone. United’s most high-profile transfer target texted his agent. But not to back out of a deal. The message, instead, was to tell United he would “fix” it. It was a sign of Casemiro’s confidence. If that self-assurance is a product of a career of rare success – the Carabao Cup took his trophy count to 21 – many another would have been deterred by the impression United were in crisis. They might have stayed at Real Madrid. Not him. “No second thoughts at all,” he recalled. “But to be honest I did say that. I was speaking to my agent, and with John [Murtough, United’s director of football] too about this afterwards. I’d said this after it had happened because I was also very excited and I was aware that my period at Real Madrid had come to an end and I was really upbeat about coming here and taking on this new project, this new challenge. It was clear in my mind.” Eight months later, it is tempting to contemplate an alternative reality where, after missing out on Frenkie de Jong last summer, Casemiro was put off by the shambolic display at Brentford, where instead of being a £63 million method of transforming a team, there was still a void at the heart of the midfield. “I knew that it wouldn’t be an easy challenge because it was a tough defeat to take but I think the excitement of coming here and making a change,” he reflected. Which he did: Casemiro provided a boost to United’s self-esteem even before he played, his unveiling at half-time of the win over Liverpool a sign of the club’s status. United only lost three of the first 32 games he started. He scored and was player of the match in the Carabao Cup final. United took 75 points from the 36 league matches after he joined and finished third. “We knew that it was a project in which you wouldn’t start winning things overnight,” he said, but they could complete a cup double at Wembley on Saturday. It appears as though he has fixed it. “It’s impossible for a single player to change performances but as a squad you can,” he demurred. Yet a turning point was October’s 6-3 defeat to Manchester City. Casemiro watched two-thirds of it from the bench: Ten Hag was still picking Scott McTominay ahead of him and if the Dutchman has made relatively few missteps, that seems one. The Brazilian marked his first Premier League start with an assist for Cristiano Ronaldo’s winner at Everton the following week. His first goal came a couple of weeks later, an injury-time equaliser at Chelsea. Each was a sign he tended to make telling contributions. Tallies of seven goals and six assists may be more than most expected; so, in a different way, are his two red cards. But they underline his centrality. He has been a fulcrum for United, the man at the heart of everything. Which is how he thinks it ought to be. City’s galaxy of gifted midfielders mean Casemiro’s skills as a nullifier will be required if Kevin de Bruyne, Ilkay Gundogan and Bernardo Silva are to be kept quiet at Wembley. “When people talk about central defensive midfielders, they forget that you need to help your teammates, you need to defend, to slot in between the centre-backs, cover any gaps that the full-backs or midfielders leave,” said a man who forged a reputation as the world’s best holding midfielder in Madrid, before offering an explanation for his greater productivity. “These are the basic principles for a central defensive midfielder. Of course, beyond that, people want you to score goals, to pass the ball, to get the team playing because football’s changed. In the past it would be the No. 10 that would be required to do that.” He can be both destructive and constructive presence, which he sees as a sign of the evolution in tactics. “I saw an interview with [Juan Roman] Riquelme once talking about central defensive midfielders and specifically [Sergio] Busquets,” Casemiro explained. “He said that often the team didn’t play well because the central holding midfielder hadn’t played [well] and people forget that throughout the history of football, it was the No. 10 who was the playmaker. The central defensive midfielder was always someone that helped the centre-backs, helped in the midfield, helped the full-backs, filled in and stopped counter attacks. The way that central defensive midfielders have had to adapt has changed a lot.” But he will hope some things stay the same. He has an outstanding record in finals; with Real, United and Brazil, he has only lost one, in the 2018 European Super Cup. “Without doubt it’s a significant stat,” he said. He also has experience of getting the better of City; Real trailed for 178 minutes of the Champions League semi-finals last season and yet still overcame Pep Guardiola’s team. “They play very good football and have a great manager and great players but every game is a different story, a different film,” he said. But if the movie of United’s season started in ignominy and ended in glory, the Casemiro biopic might have a certain monotony, if only because he has won so much, so often. Read More Manchester United are obsessed with stopping Man City – their history depends on it The unlikely Manchester United answer to derail Man City’s treble hopes How Raphael Varane transformed Manchester United: ‘You need the character to fight’ Andre Marriner retires from refereeing Bruno Fernandes nets Man Utd winner in comeback against Fulham to clinch third Manchester United owe Champions League return to one man

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TikTok has uncovered and shut down a secretive operation to influence Irish users and whip up social conflict. The covert influence operation (CIO) network comprised 72 accounts with a total following of almost 95,000 users. The video sharing platform’s work to find and remove the accounts was detailed in a report to the European Commission. TikTok is a signatory of an EU code of practice aimed at combatting disinformation and misinformation online. Ireland from March to June 2023" data-source=""> The latest report covered the timespan from January to June this year. “The network targeted Irish audiences,” TikTok said of the CIO in Ireland. “The individuals behind this network created inauthentic accounts; hyper-posted content with divisive views related to nationalism in Ireland, Japan, Russia, and Taiwan; and hyper-posted comments with similar low-quality content in an attempt to redirect TikTok users off-platform and to intensify social conflict.” TikTok moved against similar covert influence operations in Russia, Poland and Germany. The report also revealed that from March to June 2023, TikTok removed 67,013 fake accounts in Ireland. Those accounts were followed by 296,274 users. In the first half of the year, TikTok removed 218,158 fake followers on accounts in Ireland and prevented 26,034,349 fake follow attempts. There were also 144 accounts banned under TikTok’s impersonation policies. A total of 2,165 videos were removed in Ireland because of violation of harmful misinformation policy. Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Spotify will not ban all AI-powered music, says boss of streaming giant Vehicle scam reports surged by 74% in the first half of 2023, says Lloyds Bank Standard Life confirms plans for pensions dashboard

Cyprus’ energy minister says the political and economic ramifications from the ongoing Israel-Hamas war may provide an impetus to regional energy projects involving his country

By Harshita Mary Varghese Broadcom on Wednesday closed its $69 billion acquisition of cloud-computing firm VMware after receiving

If there’s one thing we like on indy100, it’s a good time traveller story. There’s been an influx of people on TikTok claiming to be from the future over recent times, but nothing will come close to the story of Sergei Ponomarenko for sheer weirdness. In one of the most infamous cases of its kind, the story centres around a man who turned up in Kyiv, Ukraine back in 2006 claiming to be from years in the past. He told authorities that he was born in 1932. He looked the part, carrying an old-fashioned camera and a dated outfit. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter The most compelling thing was that he held a Soviet document from the 1950s, which he claimed showed he was the age of 25. @bethany.gets.weird Time Traveler Sergei Ponomarenko #timetravel #ufo #conspiracy #unexplained Ponomarenko then proceeded to show people pictures that he claimed he’d taken on his camera in Kyiv. After they’d been developed, authorities found that the images did indeed show Kyiv in the 50s, and they also showed him with an unnamed woman – as well as an image that Ponomarenko claimed showed a UFO. The bizarre story took another turn when authorities looked back into the records and found a man by the same name who went missing in 1958. Strangely, they tracked down the man’s girlfriend who by that time was in her 70s. It turns out that the girlfriend was the woman in the photographs. She then told authorities that Ponomarenko had disappeared for two years and then reappeared in the 50s. Not only that, but she then received a photograph showing him as an older man, with the picture purporting to have been taken in Kyiv in 2050. It’s all kinds of weird, but the mystery might finally have been solved all these years later. YouTuber Joe Scott has delved back into the case, and come up with an explanation that might put the whole incident to bed. As Joe finds, the picture of Ponomarenko purportedly from 2050 Kyiv has been “cloned” and possibly includes the Empire State Building. More compellingly, Joe also found that the photos were taken from the Ukrainian TV show Aliens. The show discusses the possibility of extraterrestrial life and is similar to the type of show you would see on The History Channel but according to Scott has a number of inaccuracies. The Most Convincing Time Traveler Story www.youtube.com It was fun while it lasted, but it looks like the ‘time traveller’ has been busted. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.