MANCHESTER, England (AP) — Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola denied he has a “personal problem” with Kevin De Bruyne and insisted Tuesday the playmaker's absence from the team in recent weeks was down to his fitness issues. City has not won in seven games in all competitions — its worst run under Guardiola — and De Bruyne has featured only as a substitute in the last five of those matches after recovering from a pelvic injury. The Belgium midfielder was injured during City’s Champions League match with Inter Milan on Sept. 18 and hasn't started since. A number of prominent pundits, including former City defender and club ambassador Micah Richards, have questioned why De Bruyne has not been starting games amid the champions’ dramatic slump. Richards said on “The Rest is Football” podcast that it appeared “there’s some sort of rift going on” between De Bruyne and Guardiola. Guardiola responded in his news conference ahead of Wednesday's Premier League match against Nottingham Forest, saying: “People say I’ve got a problem with Kevin. Do you think I like to not play with Kevin? No, I don’t want Kevin to play? “The guy who has the most talent in the final third — I don’t want it? I have a personal problem with him after nine years together? He’s delivered to me the biggest success to this club, but he’s been five months injured (last season) and two months injured (this year). He’s 33 years old. He needs time to find his best, like last season, step by step. He’ll try to do it and feel better. I’m desperate to have his best.” Both De Bruyne and Guardiola have spoken since of the pain De Bruyne was in after his injury against Inter and the need to ease him back into action. De Bruyne is in the final year of his contract. “I’d love to have the Kevin in his prime, 26 or 27. He would love it too — but he is not 26 or 27 anymore," Guardiola said. “He had injuries in the past, important and long ones. He is a guy who needs to be physically fit for his space and energy. You think I’m complaining? It’s normal, it’s nature. He’s played in 10 or 11 seasons a lot of games and I know he is desperate to help us. He gives glimpses of brilliance that only he can have." AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccerIn conclusion, Fu Jing's foray into the world of comedy with "Moonlight Crash!" is shaping up to be a promising venture. With her charm, talent, and dedication to her craft, she is sure to win over audiences and critics alike. Keep an eye out for this delightful film, as it promises to be a moonlit journey filled with laughter and heartwarming moments.
In a recent statement, the Iranian Ambassador issued a stark warning to the United States regarding the potential consequences of the collapse of the Assad regime in Syria. The Ambassador emphasized that any attempt by the US or its allies to remove President Bashar al-Assad from power could lead to a dangerous escalation of conflict in the region.Beyond the personal ramifications, the case also raised broader questions about the complexities of intergenerational wealth transfer and family dynamics. It shed light on the challenges that can arise when financial decisions are motivated by a desire to secure a child's future but ultimately lead to unintended consequences and emotional turmoil.WEST BLOOMFIELD — Last November, the Orchard Lake St. Mary’s Eaglets locked themselves in a weight room, and began prepping for the 2024 season waiting for moments like this. A moment where you can be resilient, determined, and succeed in. Related Articles High School Sports | PHOTOS: Football State Semifinals – Flat Rock vs Pontiac Notre Dame Prep High School Sports | Photo gallery from the Division 2 football semifinal between Orchard Lake St. Mary’s and Birmingham Groves High School Sports | Hudsonville pulls away from Adams in second half of semifinal, ending Highlanders’ special run High School Sports | Everest Collegiate completes unbeaten season, fends off OLL to repeat as D4 champs High School Sports | Photo gallery from Everest Collegiate vs. St. Joseph Our Lady of the Lake in the D4 volleyball state final “That’s just been Orchard Lake Football for centuries for years is to play physically. And we needed that to help us for times like this, in the playoffs, and all that good stuff. So I’m just proud of this group,” third-year head coach Jermaine Gonzales said. “You don’t understand, we started this thing back in November after last season, not making the playoffs our weight program started in November. And these seniors were locked in all spring, summer, winter, to get to this point.” That point was to force overtime with under a minute to play, make a key interception in overtime, and help seal a win. Thanks to those series of events, the Eaglets will return to Ford Field with an 28-27 overtime win over Birmingham Groves in the MHSAA Division 2 state semifinals on Saturday. OLSM will play Byron Center on Friday at 7 p.m. at Ford Field for the state championship. “That was our whole mindset all year, but this is a resilient group, like, all year, we lost closed games to really tough teams,” Gonzales continued. “But we know as a team, we got better from it each week. And I just think we just showed that today. Hats off to Groves, they’re a helluva team, well-coached, physical team. This was a great game, but the job’s not finished.” Both Groves and OLSM played back and forth the entire game answering scoring drives with scoring drives. But a defensive stop came up late in the fourth quarter. Groves’ defense forced the Eaglets to punt from its own end zone, which gave the offense the ball in plus territory with 1:09 to play. The Falcons offense moved the ball as close to field goal range. On third down from just outside the red zone. Coach Brendan Flaherty thought he had enough time to spike the ball, after a run play was called on third down. “We got, you know, some mayday field goal and we have that in our playbook, and we just didn’t have enough time to get it out there,” he said. “So we thought we could gain a couple more yards there and maybe spike the ball and yeah, get it there. That’s what we were hoping to do.” Groves was able to recover immediately in overtime after losing the coin toss. Noah Sanders scored his third touchdown of the day that gave the Falcons a 27-21 lead. Groves then decided to go for a 2-point conversion, to have OLSM chase points. “We were trying to get them ahead so they’d have to chase some points,” Flaherty said. “We made a call there because we knew they’d sell out for a block. We thought we had a good call drawn up because the play was open there for a second there.” As Ryan Counts rolled to his left, he had Wyatt Shortridge open, but the Eaglets made a play and picked off a contested pass. The next play, St Mary’s scored with a 10-yard touchdown run by senior Bryson Williams, his second of the game. Then it was up to a freshman kicker and holder combo to send OLSM to Ford Field. “I trusted my line, I trusted Luke (Jackson), and I really trust DJ (Taylor). He’s been holding for me all freshman year and he’s amazing. He’s probably the best holder I’ve ever had, and I knew he was just gonna go through,” freshman Brannon Hardy said. “DJ and I haven’t missed an extra point all year. Now we’re going to Ford Field.” The Eaglets started the scoring on its opening drive of the game when Camari Patterson scored a 1-yard touchdown run. Senior Darrin Jones added another on a 43-yard touchdown as well on OLSM’s second drive of the game. On the other sideline Noah Sanders answered the opening drive with a 50-yard touchdown of his own. The Toledo commit had a second touchdown in the second half as well on a 1-yard carry before he earned his third score in overtime. Sanders had 27 carries for 180 yards. The game was tied going into the half thanks to Counts’ 7-yard pass to Shortridge. OLSM retook the lead on a 21-yard score late in the third quarter on fourth and five by Williams. The Groves defense was buoyed in big moments by Chris Little who had two interceptions in the second half. Photo gallery from the Division 2 football semifinal between Orchard Lake St. Mary’s and Birmingham Groves /*! 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Title: Exposing the Dark Underworld of Car Loan Scams Targeting People To Borrow Tens of Thousands in Order to Earn a Meager 30,000WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — Attorneys for Fox Corp. asked a Delaware judge Friday to dismiss a shareholder lawsuit seeking to hold current and former company officials personally liable for the financial fallout stemming from Fox News reports regarding alleged vote rigging in the 2020 election. Five New York City public employee pension funds, along with Oregon’s public employee retirement fund, allege that former chairman Rupert Murdoch and other Fox Corp. leaders deliberately turned a blind eye to liability risks posed by reporting false claims of vote rigging by election technology companies Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic USA. Smartmatic is suing Fox News for defamation in New York, alleging damages of $2.7 billion. It recently settled a lawsuit in the District of Columbia against One America News Network, another conservative outlet, over reports of vote fraud. Dominion also filed several defamation lawsuits against those who spread conspiracy theories blaming its election equipment for Donald Trump’s loss in 2020. Last year, Fox News settled a defamation lawsuit filed by Dominion in Delaware for $787 million. The shareholder plaintiffs also allege that Fox corporate leaders ignored “red flags” about liability arising from a 2017 report suggesting that Seth Rich, a Democratic National Committee staffer, may have been killed because he had leaked Democratic party emails to Wikileaks during the 2016 presidential campaign. Rich, 27, was shot in 2016 in Washington, D.C., in what authorities have said was an attempted robbery. Fox News retracted the Seth Rich story a week after its initial broadcast, but Rich’s parents sued the network for falsely portraying their son as a criminal and traitor. Fox News settled the lawsuit in 2020 for “millions of dollars,” shortly before program hosts Lou Dobbs and Sean Hannity were to be deposed, according to the shareholder lawsuit. Joel Friedlander, an attorney for the institutional shareholders, argued that Fox officials waited until the company’s reporting about Rich became a national scandal before addressing the issue. Similarly, according to the shareholders, corporate officials, including Rupert Murdoch and his son, CEO Lachlan Murdoch, allowed Fox News to continue broadcasting false narratives about the 2020 election, despite internal communications suggesting that they knew there was no evidence to support the conspiracy theories. “The Murdochs could have minimized future monetary exposure, but they chose not to,” Friedlander said. Instead, he argued, they engaged in “bad-faith decision making” with other defendants in a profit-driven effort to retain viewers and remain in Trump’s good graces. “Decisions were made at the highest level to promote pro-Trump conspiracy theories without editorial control,” Friedlander said. Defense attorneys argue that the case should be dismissed because the plaintiffs filed their lawsuit without first demanding that the Fox Corp. board take action, as required under Delaware law. They say the plaintiffs also failed to demonstrate that a pre-suit demand on the Fox board would have been futile because at least half of the directors face a substantial likelihood of liability or are not independent of someone who does. Beyond the “demand futility” issue, defense attorneys also argue that allegations that Fox officials breached their fiduciary duties fail to meet the pleading standards under Delaware and therefore should be dismissed. Defense attorney William Savitt argued, for example, that neither the Rich settlement, which he described as “immaterial,” nor the allegedly defamatory statements about Dominion and Smartmatic constitute red flags putting directors on notice about the risk of defamation liability. Nor do they demonstrate that directors acted in bad faith or that Fox “utterly failed” to implement and monitor a system to report and mitigate legal risks, including defamation liability risk, according to the defendants. Savitt noted that the Rich article was promptly retracted, and that the settlement included no admission of liability. The Dominion and Smartmatic statements, meanwhile, gave rise themselves to the currently liability issues and therefore can not serve as red flags about future liability risks, according to the defendants. “A ‘red flag’ must be what the term commonly implies — warning of a risk of a liability-causing event that allows the directors to take action to avert the event, not notice that a liability-causing event has already occurred,” defense attorneys wrote in their motion to dismiss. Defense attorneys also say there are no factual allegations to support claims that Fox officials condoned illegal conduct in pursuit of corporate profits, or that they deliberately ignored their oversight responsibilities. They note that a “bad outcome” is not sufficient to demonstrate “bad faith.” Vice Chancellor J. Travis Laster is expected to rule within 90 days.