Liverpool manager Arne Slot has admitted that his team's defeat at home to Nottingham Forest earlier this season is not the surprise result he thought it was at the time.
The table-toppers have lost just once in 19 Premier League games this season - when Nuno Espirito Santo's Forest came to Anfield in September and secured a 1-0 victory.
Callum Hudson-Odoi's 72nd minute winner ended Liverpool's perfect start to campaign and earned Forest their first win at Liverpool in any competition since 1969.
That victory was a sign of things to come from surprise packages Forest who currently sit third in the table – six points behind Liverpool – having won six games on the spin.
It is the first time Forest have achieved that feat in a single top-flight season for 58 years and their last victory – 3-0 at Wolves – was their ninth clean sheet in the league this season – more than any other team in the division.
And while Slot acknowledges his first defeat since replacing Jurgen Klopp as Liverpool manager was a frustrating one – Forest finished in 17th place last season – he now looks at it in a different light.
“For us to lose on that day was, for me, hard to take,” said the Dutchman ahead of Tuesday's trip to the City Ground.
“Now, looking back at it and seeing where they are in the league, it has not been such a shock result as I thought it was back then.
“I have always said you can judge the table best halfway through the season. They are up there with the rest so they are definitely a team in competition with us and the others.
“If you look at the way they play and their results then it is deserved. Nuno is doing an incredible job, but if you look at the amount of money they spent it is not a complete surprise that they do well this season.
“They are a team that hardly concede goals. They don't take many risks in their build-up play so when they lose the ball they have many players behind the ball and they defend with 11 players.”
Liverpool's only other defeat in any competition came last week when they lost 1-0 to Tottenham Hotspur in the League Cup semi-final first leg.
They are currently also leading the way in the revamped Champions League – having won six out of six games so far – and defeated fourth-tier Accrington Stanley 4-0 on Saturday to seal their place in the FA Cup fourth round, where they will take on Plymouth Argyle.
It has been a remarkable start to life on Merseyside for Slot who has seen his team win 24 of 30 matches in all competitions since taking charge.
But the former Feyenoord coach is continuing to warn against complacency, highlighting the fact old foes Manchester City have returned to winning ways after their dreadful run of form.
Pep Guardiola's reigning champions have just recorded three victories on the trot and Slot is rightly wary about writing off a team that has secured four consecutive league titles.
“I said many times if you go into a job you don't think about where we will be halfway through a season when it comes to the position in the league table,” he added.
“What you do try to focus on a lot is 'Can we make the players really fit, can we make them work really hard and can we implement the playing style in the best possible way from the start?'.
“You never know what the other teams are going to do – I don't think any one of us expected City to be where they are at the moment, although you can see already now they are coming back and winning their games in a way we are like 'Ah, this is City again'.
“You don't think about these things before the start of the season, you mostly think about 'OK, can I let these players play in a way I would like them to play' – and hopefully the fans would like them to play as well.”
Liverpool will be without suspended Uruguayan striker Darwin Nunez, while defender Joe Gomez remains out of action with an hamstring injury.
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
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Company profile
Company: Rent Your Wardrobe
Date started: May 2021
Founder: Mamta Arora
Based: Dubai
Sector: Clothes rental subscription
Stage: Bootstrapped, self-funded
Safety 'top priority' for rival hyperloop company
The chief operating officer of Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, Andres de Leon, said his company's hyperloop technology is “ready” and safe.
He said the company prioritised safety throughout its development and, last year, Munich Re, one of the world's largest reinsurance companies, announced it was ready to insure their technology.
“Our levitation, propulsion, and vacuum technology have all been developed [...] over several decades and have been deployed and tested at full scale,” he said in a statement to The National.
“Only once the system has been certified and approved will it move people,” he said.
HyperloopTT has begun designing and engineering processes for its Abu Dhabi projects and hopes to break ground soon.
With no delivery date yet announced, Mr de Leon said timelines had to be considered carefully, as government approval, permits, and regulations could create necessary delays.
The past Palme d'Or winners
2018 Shoplifters, Hirokazu Kore-eda
2017 The Square, Ruben Ostlund
2016 I, Daniel Blake, Ken Loach
2015 Dheepan, Jacques Audiard
2014 Winter Sleep (Kış Uykusu), Nuri Bilge Ceylan
2013 Blue is the Warmest Colour (La Vie d'Adèle: Chapitres 1 et 2), Abdellatif Kechiche, Adele Exarchopoulos and Lea Seydoux
2012 Amour, Michael Haneke
2011 The Tree of Life, Terrence Malick
2010 Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (Lung Bunmi Raluek Chat), Apichatpong Weerasethakul
2009 The White Ribbon (Eine deutsche Kindergeschichte), Michael Haneke
2008 The Class (Entre les murs), Laurent Cantet
Huroob Ezterari
Director: Ahmed Moussa
Starring: Ahmed El Sakka, Amir Karara, Ghada Adel and Moustafa Mohammed
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A cryptocurrency primer for beginners
Cryptocurrency Investing for Dummies – by Kiana Danial
There are several primers for investing in cryptocurrencies available online, including e-books written by people whose credentials fall apart on the second page of your preferred search engine.
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Although cryptocurrencies are a fast evolving world, this book offers a good insight into the game as well as providing some basic tips, strategies and warning signs.
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Leading all-time NBA scorers
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar 38,387
Karl Malone 36,928
Kobe Bryant 33,643
Michael Jordan 32,292
LeBron James 31,425
Wilt Chamberlain 31,419
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