Israel
PTF warns against neglect of virus protocols
The Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 has warned against perceived neglect of the non-pharmaceutical protocols and other measures aimed at tackling the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in the country. The PTF chairman and Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr Boss Mustapha, gave the warning at the daily briefing by the PTF on Monday in Abuja. He said that there was increasing disregard for basic non-pharmaceutical measures that have proven to be very successful. He said face masks have now been turned into chin masks, social distancing and gatherings are returning to the pre-COVID era. Mustapha, however, called for vigilance in order to forestall any danger of second wave of the pandemic as the countries in Europe were currently facing. According to him, th...
Nigerian striker tests positive for coronavirus
Few days after opening his goals account for the season, Nigerian forward David Okereke has tested positive for coronavirus. Okereke’s Belgian team Club Brugge in a short statement on their official website on Tuesday confirmed the positive status of their Nigerian forward. The club wrote: “Attacker David Okereke took a positive Corona test this morning. The attacker was immediately quarantined and will be retested next week.” Okereke has thus become the third high-profile Nigeria player to test positive for Coronavirus. Paul Onuachu of Genk and Samuel Kalu of Ligue 1 club Bordeaux also tested positive for Covid-19, but the duo have since recovered and already back in action for their respective team. Get more stories like this on Twitter You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are looking...
Premier League terminate £490 million TV deal in China
The Premier League has terminated its TV rights deal with China, its biggest overseas contract, leaving a huge hole in clubs’ finances. The deal with Chinese broadcaster PPTV was worth around £490m and had lasted only one of its three years. The conflict is said to have been around a fee of £160m that the Premier League was owed in March but did not receive. “The Premier League confirms that it has today terminated its agreements for Premier League coverage in China with its licensee in that territory,” a spokesman said on Thursday. “The Premier League will not be commenting further on the matter at this stage.” It is not known if the conflict is based purely on money or involves the escalating political tensions between China and the UK government. Boris Johnson announced in July that Hua...
Seth Rogen Says He Was “Fed a Huge Amount of Lies About Israel”
Seth Rogen pissed off North Korea with some truthiness in The Interview, and now he’s sparked similar backlash with recent comments about Israel. His remarks came during an interview on Marc Maron’s WTF Podcast, ostensibly about the actor’s forthcoming HBO Max movie, An American Pickle. The film sees Rogen portray a Jewish immigrant who finds himself in Brooklyn in the early 1900s. When he falls into a pickle vat, the brine preserves him for a century, emerging to meet his grandson (also portrayed by Rogen), a secular Jew of the modern age. As Rogen and Maron are both Jewish, much of the conversation centered around their own experience with Judaism and identity. While much of the discussion was comedic and nuanced, some of the remarks have stirred controversy. When the idea of reloca...
Hezbollah deny ‘involvement’ in border clash with Israel
Lebanese group Hezbollah denied any involvement in a border clash with Israel after Jerusalem said it had repelled an attempt by the militant group to penetrate its northern border on Monday, The border clash, which Israel said included an exchange of fire between its troops and gunmen, followed days of reported heightened tensions between Hezbollah and the Jewish state. “Today, a Hezbollah cell penetrated Israeli territory,” Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a televised address, adding that the army succeeded in thwarting the “attempted attack”. “Hezbollah is playing with fire and our response will be very strong,” the veteran premier added, insisting that the Shiite group and the Lebanese government, “carry responsibility” for Monday’s incident. Israel’s army said a grou...
Roger Waters Under Fire for Anti-Semitic Comments
Roger Waters has come under fire for recent comments in which he described Jewish-American billionaire Sheldon Adelson as a “puppet master,” blamed Israel for the death of George Floyd, and called Zionism an “ugly stain” that “needs to be gently removed by us.” Waters made the remarks in a new interview with the Middle East Media Research Institute. Discussing the relationship between the US and Israel, Waters singled out Adelson, the American business magnate and GOP political donor whose net worth is approaching $40 billion. Adelson is “the puppet master pulling the strings of Donald Trump, Mike Pompeo, and what’s his name… the Ambassador [to Israel]…,” Waters commented, before wrongly identifying Ambassador David Friedman as “Greenberg.” “And Sheldon Adelson is a right-wing fa...
Israelis Stage Music Festival in Protest of Country’s COVID-19 Lockdown
Live music returned to Israel on Thursday, as over 3,000 people gathered in a park in Tel Aviv for an event called “Behind the Scenes: an Assembly of Solidarity”. Though technically billed as a protest, and not a concert, the event featured a dozen prominent Israeli artists performing on a large stage. Much like in America, Israel has been on a COVID-19 lockdown since mid-March, which has effectively shuttered the entertainment industry. Yesterday’s event served as a protest to encourage the government to reopen live events, according to Billboard. In order to stage such a large-scale mass gathering, organizers of the event exploited a loophole in Israel’s health regulations allowing for contained protests. Upon entering the park, attendees were asked to wear a face mask and keep six feet ...
Another Premier League player tests positive for novel coronavirus
A third first-team player from Brighton & Hove Albion tested positive for COVID-19 on Saturday, the Premier League club’s chief executive Paul Barber has confirmed. Two Brighton players had contracted the novel coronavirus in March and April and the latest positive result could cast doubts on the Premier League’s plans to resume the season that has been suspended due to the pandemic. Clubs are due to meet on Monday to further discuss “Project Restart” which envisages a return to play in June once given the green light from government, with the remaining 92 matches held behind closed doors at neutral venues. “It is a concern. Unfortunately we’ve had a third player test positive yesterday,” Barber told Sky Sports on Sunday. “So despite all of the measures that we’ve been taking over the ...
UEFA releases possible dates for Champions League games
UEFA’s plan to complete the Champions League and Europa League continues. The plan says that they will be played throughout the month of August once the leagues are done in July. UEFA have an idea which is to end the season by the end of August. Therefore, the domestic leagues need to be completed by the end of July. The proposal is for the remaining last 16 games to be played in the first week of the month. On 26th and 29th August, Gdansk and Istanbul will host the Europa League and Champions League finals respectively. ‘Marca’ says that they will try and stick to that instead of playing both the finals at the same venue. There are 17 Champions League and 27 Europa League matches left to play. Confirmation of the new calendar depends first on leagues getting back underway and then on the ...
La Liga congratulates Bundesliga ahead football league return
The Spanish La Liga has congratulated Germany’s Bundesliga for announcing its imminent return as Spain’s top-flight stepped up its own comeback preparations. The Bundesliga was given the green light to resume later this month when chancellor Angela Merkel made the announcement during a news conference on Wednesday. Strict testing and matchday procedures will be put in place by the German government, with football seemingly set to resume on May 15 having been paused in mid-March. LaLiga outlined its own plan for a staggered return to training on Monday, with teams set to begin individual work this week before gradually moving to group sessions, the ultimate aim being to re-commence the 2019-20 season in June. Spanish clubs began testing players for COVID-19 on Tuesday and LaLiga sees the Bu...
