List of All Articles with Tag 'f'

Inflation eased in both the US and UK, prompting bets that central banks on both sides of the

Lamine Yamal has played down rumours of a potential rift between himself and Barcelona teammate Robert Lewandowski.

Charles Leclerc danced his way to pole position with an emphatic performance for Ferrari under the Las Vegas lights. At just after 1am local time – the latest conclusion to a qualifying session in Formula One history – Leclerc finished just 0.044 seconds clear of team-mate Carlos Sainz. However, Sainz will start down in 12th after a loose drain cover destroyed his Ferrari in practice and triggered a 10-place grid penalty. Triple world champion Max Verstappen, a winner in 17 of the 20 rounds so far, took third spot for Red Bull, but will move up to second following Sainz’s demotion. Lewis Hamilton was eliminated in Q2, leaving him only 10th on the grid. Hamilton finished half-a-second behind team-mate George Russell, who hauled his Mercedes into Q3 before taking advantage of Sainz’s penalty to secure third on the grid for Saturday’s 50-lap race. Following the shambolic start to F1’s Sin City comeback here on Thursday night, qualifying passed off without significant incident – much to the relief of the sport’s under-fire bosses. F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali stopped short of issuing an apology to the furious spectators, who saw just eight minutes of practice before they were ejected from the stands. However, in the early hours of Saturday morning, the estimated 90,000 fans who filled the 3.8-mile street venue – 30,000 down on capacity – were treated to an uninterrupted session which saw Leclerc romp to top spot in his scarlet machine. “I am happy,” said Leclerc. “To have first place in Las Vegas is great. “I was a bit disappointed because my lap was not great but it was all we needed. In the race we usually lack pace but hopefully we can put it all together in the race.” Against the backdrop of Caesars Palace, the MGM Grand and Bellagio hotels, Ferrari delivered, but it was another underwhelming showing for Hamilton. A fortnight after the seven-time world champion finished eighth in Brazil – 63 seconds behind winner Verstappen – he struggled for pace in his underperforming Mercedes. “Couldn’t go faster, mate,” said Hamilton following his elimination. Behind Hamilton, Sergio Perez qualified one place back. Lando Norris arrived in Nevada as the grid’s in-form driver after scoring more points across the last three rounds than anyone else. But the British driver failed to make it out of Q2 with his McLaren machinery not suited to the three long straights here coupled with slow corners. He qualified only 16th, three places ahead of team-mate Oscar Piastri who also fell at the first hurdle. “Very disappointed,” said McLaren CEO Zak Brown. “We thought we’d struggle this weekend but I didn’t think either car would be out in Q1. “Not a good start to the weekend and now all we can do is focus on the race tomorrow.” Read More Toto Wolff fuelled by ‘personal anger’ to help Lewis Hamilton win eighth title On this day in 2010: Sebastian Vettel becomes youngest ever F1 world champion Lewis Hamilton ‘counting down days’ to end of season after another poor race Max Verstappen thwarts Lando Norris’ bid for first F1 win with sprint victory F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix LIVE: Qualifying times and results in Sin City Verstappen calls Ocon a ‘stupid idiot’ in F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix qualifying tussle

Islam Alashi, 37, left her home in Wirral for Gaza to visit her sick father in September.

Rodolphe Saade, the billionaire head of the world’s third-largest container line, warned the industry is entering a choppy

Gareth Southgate wants England to go into next summer’s Euros with momentum and is targeting an unbeaten run all the way through to Germany. Having wrapped up progress to next year’s finals with two games to spare, Friday’s forgettable 2-0 victory against Malta all-but assured their place among the top seeds at the December 2 draw. England cruised to qualification from what had looked to be a potentially tricky pool and Southgate wants his side to end 2023 with a bang as they round off Group C away to North Macedonia on Monday. But with Euro 2024 glory their stated ambition, the former defender wants his players to keep their foot on the gas. “We’ve had a really good calendar year and we want to finish it well,” the England manager said ahead of the trip to Skopje. “Simple as that. “We should be aiming to go, if we can, into the tournament unbeaten. We’ve got some tough games coming ahead. “I mean, I’m a bit loathed to say that because then you start looking for draws when you want to go and win matches as well, so I want to get the messaging right on that. “But, you know, it’s good for us to be away from Wembley again, a challenging environment because that’s what we’re going to be in next summer.” England have not lost a match since last December’s galling 2-1 defeat to eventual runners-up France in their World Cup quarter-final clash in Qatar. Les Bleus are among their main rivals for silverware next summer, with Southgate’s side stepping up preparations for the Euros with challenging March friendlies against Brazil and Belgium at Wembley. Both opponents will provide stern tests for a team that Southgate says cannot afford to fall short of the level “they need to be at” like they were against Mediterranean minnows Malta. “The teams we’ve got in March, we wouldn’t get away with it,” Southgate said. “And the players just would have a different level of motivation (compared to against Malta). “This week was always going to be difficult. We’ve already qualified, the players are in the middle of a load of matches. “We’re trying to look after a few physically with the team selection, so you’re making changes that, had we needed to win tonight to qualify, might be different. “So, yeah, the whole week has been a little bit like that – couldn’t really get the players on the pitch until Wednesday and as a consequence we were flat. I accept that. “That’s where we were but I’m not going to get into the players about that. I know why and they’ve won another game of football. “It could have been by more. Not quite sure why the third (from Declan Rice) was disallowed, but there we are.” As frustrating as Friday night was at Wembley, England remain well placed for silverware in Southgate’s fourth – and quite possibly final – major tournament at the helm. There is no time to waste with chances to work together limited, plus the fact Monday’s trip to Skopje looks likely to be their final match on foreign soil until the Euros get under way in June. North Macedonia are expected to be far better than in June’s 7-0 Old Trafford annihilation and Southgate has a number of things to consider before settling on his side for the Group C finale. “A lot of our decision-making is physical as much as anything at the moment, so it’s a strange thing,” he said. “Probably if you’ve still got to qualify there’s a different focus on the games and everybody’s happy and understands their players have got to play. “You’re not subconsciously thinking about ‘should we be pushing players out for another game?’ “So, we need to look at where we are after this game in terms of any knocks and bumps. “We’ve got some fresh players to come in. We want to get the balance of the team right and then assess whether there are certain things we want to see and learn from Monday night’s game as well.” Read More Pat Cummins urges Australia to ’embrace’ World Cup final pressure against India Liverpool fly Luis Diaz’s parents to UK for Christmas with son after kidnapping On this day in 2013 – Elena Baltacha announces retirement from tennis England display against Malta ‘not a worry’ ahead of Euros, Gareth Southgate insists Stephen Kenny insists ‘no pressure’ on Evan Ferguson against Netherlands England continue unbeaten Euro 2024 qualifying run with victory over Malta

Saturday's football transfer rumours, with updates on Antoine Griezmann, Raphinha, Goncalo Inacio, Thomas Partey & more.

Liverpool have flown Luis Diaz’s parents to Merseyside so they can spend Christmas with their son after their recent kidnapping ordeal. Cilenis Marulanda was freed almost immediately after being taken by guerrilla group the National Liberation Army earlier this month but father Luis Manuel was held captive for 12 days until being released late last week. Diaz was reunited with his parents when he returned to Colombia for international duty and the pair were in the crowd to see their son score both goals in an emotional 2-1 victory at home to Brazil on Thursday. The PA news agency understands that following the game Liverpool paid for a private jet, for security reasons and to help manage the family’s trauma, to bring Diaz’s parents and wider family to Merseyside so they could spend an extended period of time together. Their plane was scheduled to land at Liverpool’s John Lennon Airport early on Saturday morning. Since Diaz’s parents were kidnapped, the club have endeavoured to provide the best possible support, with manager Jurgen Klopp allowing Diaz compassionate leave and leaving decisions about when he trained and was available for selection entirely up to the player, in keeping with the family values they believe are vital to the club’s ethos. Diaz will rejoin his family in Liverpool when he returns from international duty after their match in Paraguay on Tuesday. He will be on a flight with the club’s other South American players Alisson Becker, who was beaten twice by his club-mate in their game in Barranquilla in the far north of Colombia, Alexis Mac Allister and Darwin Nunez – who faced each other in Argentina’s 2-1 defeat by Uruguay – in a plane jointly chartered by a number of Premier League clubs to return their players home as expediently as possible. Liverpool head to Manchester City in a top-of-the-table clash at the Etihad Stadium next Saturday lunchtime. Read More On this day in 2013 – Elena Baltacha announces retirement from tennis England display against Malta ‘not a worry’ ahead of Euros, Gareth Southgate insists Stephen Kenny insists ‘no pressure’ on Evan Ferguson against Netherlands

Wealthy Americans are holding off on booking trips to Paris as the war in the Middle East and

F1’s highly anticipated Las Vegas Grand Prix is back on track after a disastrous opening day had to be suspended to fix a loose manhole cover, as qualifying begins. The first session of F1’s newest event had only been going for eight minutes before Carlos Sainz’s car stopped on the lengthy Vegas strip. Replays show his Ferrari car, at speeds of over 200mph, went over a loose drain cover before the Spaniard veered to the side and stopped the car due to substantial floor damage, and Ferrari were furious. FP2 was delayed for more than two hours while the circuit was made safe, before the Ferrari pair of Charles Leclerc and Sainz topped the timings, with Max Verstappen only sixth. FP3 then saw Mercedes’ George Russell top the charts ahead of McLaren’s Oscar Pastri and Williams’ Logan Sargeant, with Ferrari way down the results after choosing to preserve their soft tyres. Follow live updates from the Las Vegas Grand Prix below and check the latest F1 odds and tips here. Read More Shambles and incompetence: F1 enters new Las Vegas dawn with disaster on opening night Ferrari boss rages at F1 after ‘unacceptable’ loose drain cover wrecks Carlos Sainz’s car Toto Wolff launches furious defence of F1 after absurd start to Las Vegas GP

Israel said its ground offensive in the north of the Gaza Strip may be expanded to the south

Everywhere I go, I am being stalked by mullets. Walk into a pub in the vicinity of Hackney, east London, and you, like me, will be haunted by the sight of them. Queue for a Fred Again concert and you’ll see an ocean of the things. Go to a rugby match at Twickenham Stadium, and there will be as many mullets as there are team shirts. Whether you know it as the mullet or the “Kentucky waterfall” or “beaver paddle”, they’ll have been in your sightline as of late. The hairstyle, which involves a shorter crop at the front, top and sides, and longer in the back, is currently being paraded by on-screen heartthrobs like Paul Mescal, Australian actor Jacob Elordi and American movie star Timothée Chalamet. In the world of sport, Spanish footballer Hector Bellerin, British rugby player Joe Marler and Formula One driver Valtteri Bottas have all rocked the hairstyle this year (and that’s not forgetting about 90 per cent of “Aussie rules” football players have mullets right now too). But its ubiquity in modern pop culture goes back a few years. Singer Lil Nas X, for example, turned up at the MTV Awards in 2021 wearing a curly, layered version of the hairstyle. Women have been wearing the coiffure even longer. Pop culture mainstays like Rihanna and Zendaya have both worn mullets on the red carpet, in 2013 and 2016, respectively. By 2021, Miley Cyrus was donning the style. That same year, Vogue hailed the mullet as the unlikely star of modern street style. The mullet has also stormed down fashion week runways, with Junya Watanabe, Stella McCartney and Alexander McQueen all incorporating the hairstyle into their 2022 shows. If that wasn’t enough proof of the mullet going mainstream, a failsafe method for judging something’s popularity is when that trendy thing gets banned in schools, or there’s a level of moral panic about it. That happened last month when a Sunderland schoolboy’s mullet was decided to be so “extreme” that he was put in isolation and ordered to chop it off. Meanwhile, even more Brits are trying to catch up with Australian mullet culture: a doctor from Dorset made headlines this week as he has been growing his locks in preparation for the world mullet growing championships in Australia, a contest that he said was “widely considered to be the Everest of the competitive mullet growing world”. We’ve all gone mullet mad. Though the name itself wasn’t coined until two decades ago – the Oxford English Dictionary credits the Beastie Boys’ 1994 song “Mullet Head” for the popularisation of the word – the mullet existed long before that. In his book Mullet Madness, Alan Henderson writes that prehistoric people may have figured out that having their hair cut shorter at the front and longer at the back meant they could keep their hair out of their eyes and their necks still toasty. What’s more, Ancient Greek texts referenced men with mullet-style cuts, while depictions of Greek gods that date back to the 6th century suggest that the hairstyle existed even then. In certain indigenous populations in the US, long hair symbolises power and a connection with the divine, and a version of the mullet – the front spiked and the back long – is considered a traditional style in tribes of the western United States like the Blackfoot and Crow. The version of the mullet we see in popular culture today, though, strongly harks back to David Bowie’s tangerine-orange waterfall-style mullet worn as his alter ego Ziggy Stardust. In the Seventies, it set a cultural precedent for the mullet as a fashion statement. Back then, the hairstyle was subversive. It spurred strong reactions from the more conservatively coiffed elite because it refused to conform to any one standard: the mullet is both long and short; masculine and feminine; somehow, scruffy while slick. The mullet’s return could be seen as a happy accident. In lockdown, men would scissor away at their locks, crafting eccentric hairstyles out of sheer boredom, sharing pictures of the resulting cut to their respective WhatsApp group chats. But that comedy mullet has since died out. A fashionable, en-vogue hairstyle has stuck around. In searching for the perfect modern mullet, men have downed tools and turned to the professionals for help. Ryan Lewis, owner of Club 13 barbershop in Hull, says that about one-third of his customers are opting for mullets. “Its presence within combat and contact sports alone conveys a modern masculinity that has trickled down into the mainstream,” he says, adding that the “harsher cuts” seen in rugby culture are being cancelled out by the more subtle, feathery mullets worn by Mescal et al. “The modern mullet is bringing a more natural and effortless look with a softer and less obnoxious shape.” James Doyle, the manager of Bristol barbershop Harry Blades and Angry Daves, says it’s not just people who work in non-corporate environments who are taking the plunge, either: it’s becoming workplace-appropriate. “You would think it’s only the musicians or creatives,” he says. “But I’ve got a couple of accountants that are rocking mullets. Anyone and everyone seems to be jumping on the trend.” The mullet trend allows men to be more expressive and embrace their individuality. I had a sixth form student come in the other day and ask for a mullet – young men are becoming more daring with their hair Samantha Perkins, salon owner and lecturer The style has become so sought after that hairdressing schools are changing the way they train stylists, too. Samantha Perkins is the owner of the salon Hair by Sam and lectures at the London Hairdressing Academy, and says that the academy has launched special masterclasses in the art of cutting mullets due to popular demand. “It’s very technical,” she explains. “It’s cut with scissors and razors, so without using clippers – so it’s already a level three cut without a doubt. Students really need to understand the hair type to execute the look.” Perkins adds that the supremacy of the cookie-cutter “short back and sides” haircut that has dominated men’s hairdressing trends for the past decade is on its way out. “The mullet trend allows men to be more expressive and embrace their individuality,” she says. “I had a sixth form student come in the other day and ask for a mullet – young men are becoming more daring with their hair.” Michael Kent, a stylist at Blue Tit hair salon in London, agrees that the popularity of the mullet hairstyle has opened up a new way of self-expression for men. “Men’s hair has always been so bland and [the mullet] has allowed people to really embrace their individuality. In popular culture, a lot of people are more comfortable in their sexuality and diversifying so much. We’re seeing a lot of clients coming in and asking for a cut like Timothée Chalamet’s. Before, people would ask for Ed Sheeran’s hair, so you can see how it’s changing.” The mullet is not just limited to men, either. The coif has long been donned by famous women (Scarlett Johansson, Joan Jett and Dolly Parton have all worn variations of the style over the years), and both Perkins and Kent say they have women customers asking for the same. “The mullet is a genderless cut,” says Kent. “Women and men are really embracing it – it’s an androgynous look.” And if you want to try the mullet yourself, Kent assures me it suits most people: “It’s like a wig you can put on anyone!” Read More Women’s scarves and crocheted ties - what is Robert Peston wearing now? I salute Dolly Parton’s beauty routine – no one sees me without my make-up How Naomi Campbell proved all her haters wrong – including me Women’s scarves and crocheted ties - what is Robert Peston wearing now? I salute Dolly Parton’s beauty routine – no one sees me without my make-up How Naomi Campbell proved all her haters wrong – including me