Author: Opalim Lifted

Argentina’s World Cup-winning manager, Lionel Scaloni, made the stunning admission that he was contemplating walking away from his position after his team achieved the rare feat of beating Brazil in Rio de Janeiro on Tuesday. Scaloni’s shocking pronouncement about his future came out of nowhere during his press conference at the Maracana Stadium, where Argentina had beaten their rivals 1-0 to stay top of the South American qualifying standings for the 2026 World Cup. “Argentina needs a coach who has all the energy possible and who is well… I need to stop the ball and start thinking; I have a…

Lionel Messi believes there “could have been a tragedy” during the crowd trouble that delayed Argentina’s World Cup qualifier against Brazil. Police charged away fans after scuffles before kick-off in a part of the Rio de Janeiro stadium that Messi says contained players’ friends and family. Messi and the Argentina players went over to try and calm the situation before returning to the dressing room. “It was bad because we saw how they were beating people,” said Messi, 36. “We went to the locker room because it was the best way to calm everything down; it could have ended in…

China is closing, destroying and repurposing mosques, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has alleged in a new report. The crackdown is part of a “systematic effort” to curb the practice of Islam in China, HRW said. There are about 20 million Muslims in China, which is officially atheist but says it allows religious freedom. Observers, however, say there has been an increased crackdown on organized religion in recent years, with Beijing seeking greater control. The BBC contacted China’s foreign ministry and ethnic affairs commission for comment in advance of the publication of the HRW report. “The Chinese government’s closure, destruction, and…

The Binance chief executive, Changpeng Zhao, has resigned after pleading guilty to money laundering violations. “I made mistakes, and I must take responsibility. This is best for our community, for Binance, and for myself”, he said in a post on X. The Justice Department said it was requiring Binance, the largest crypto-exchange in the world, to pay $4.3 billion (£3.4 billion) in penalties and forfeitures. It said the largest crypto-exchange plaftorm had helped users bypass sanctions across the world. “Binance enabled nearly $900 million in transactions between US and Iranian users and facilitated millions of dollars in transactions between US…

Newcastle will be able to sign players on loan from sides also controlled by their Saudi owners in January after a vote by Premier League clubs on a temporary ban on related-party loans did not receive the required support. Twelve clubs voted in favour of a block on loan moves between teams under the same ownership. It fell two votes short of the two-thirds majority required for passage. The Premier League was understood to be in favour of introducing the ban. It means Newcastle United, for instance, could sign players from clubs also owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund…

Son Heung-min scored twice as South Korea beat China 3-0 to maintain their perfect start to 2026 World Cup qualifying. The Tottenham captain netted an 11th-minute penalty before heading home a second just before the break. Son was also involved in South Korea’s third, assisting Jung Seung-hyun’s bullet header in the 87th minute. After thrashing Singapore 5-0 on Thursday, Jurgen Klinsmann’s South Korea side top Group C with six points. Son slotted his spot-kick past China goalkeeper Yan Junling, giving South Korea an early lead after Wolves forward Hwang Hee-chan was fouled. The goal was scored in front of a…

North Korean IT workers seeking employment in Western tech companies are deploying sophisticated subterfuge to get hired, using fake names, sham LinkedIn profiles, counterfeit work papers, and mock interview scripts. Landing a job outside North Korea to secretly earn hard currency for the isolated country demands highly developed strategies to convince Western hiring managers, according to documents reviewed by Reuters and an interview with a former North Korean IT worker and cybersecurity researchers. North Korea has dispatched thousands of IT workers overseas, an effort that has accelerated in the last four years, to bring in millions to finance Pyongyang’s nuclear…

The Lagos State Police Command has said the autopsy report of the late singer, Ilerioluwa Aloba, popularly known as Mohbad, conducted two months ago has not been given to them. Today marks two months since the exhumation of the late Mohbad’s corpse and the commencement of an autopsy to determine the cause of the singer’s death. Mohbad’s death on September 12 sparked controversies in Nigeria and beyond, which prompted the police to set up an investigative team to determine what led to the singer’s demise. The state police public relations officer, Benjamin Hundeyin, tweeted in September that an “autopsy has…

Abdul Uthman, son of Davido’s late aide, Obama DMW, on Tuesday appreciated the singer for taking care of him after his dad’s passing. Uthman announced this in a birthday note he wrote for the Afrobeats star, who celebrated a new age on Tuesday. On his Instagram page, Uthman wrote, “Dad, I’m writing this from the bottom of my heart. Keeping a promise is one of the hardest things in life! “You promised to help me since I lost my father. You never rejected me. You loved me just the way a father should love his child. “In every video of…

The chief of Hamas said on Tuesday that the Palestinian militant group was nearing a truce agreement with Israel, even as the deadly assault on Gaza continued and rockets were being fired into Israel, Reuters disclosed. Hamas officials are “close to reaching a truce agreement” with Israel, and the group has delivered its response to Qatari mediators, Ismail Haniyeh said in a statement sent to Reuters by his aide. There were no more details about the terms of the potential agreement. US President Joe Biden said on Monday he believed an accord was near. “We’re closer now than we’ve been…