Spain midfielder Cesc Fabregas attends a news conference on June 15, 2014, at CT do Caju in Curitiba during the 2014 Fifa World Cup in Brazil. Lluis Gene / AFP
Spain midfielder Cesc Fabregas attends a news conference on June 15, 2014, at CT do Caju in Curitiba during the 2014 Fifa World Cup in Brazil. Lluis Gene / AFP
Spain midfielder Cesc Fabregas attends a news conference on June 15, 2014, at CT do Caju in Curitiba during the 2014 Fifa World Cup in Brazil. Lluis Gene / AFP
Spain midfielder Cesc Fabregas attends a news conference on June 15, 2014, at CT do Caju in Curitiba during the 2014 Fifa World Cup in Brazil. Lluis Gene / AFP

Arsenal did not need me as they had Ozil, Chelsea-bound Fabregas says


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Spain midfielder Cesc Fabregas said he spoke with Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger before joining Chelsea but was told his position was already covered by Mesut Ozil.

Arsenal had first option on their former player when he decided to leave Barcelona at the end of last season, but he moved to Chelsea in a deal reportedly worth €33 million (Dh164.1m), with a further €3m linked to performances.

“We talked with Wenger, but he said that he would find it difficult to make a place for me on the pitch as Ozil had my position covered,” Fabregas, 27, said at Spain’s World Cup base in Curitiba.

“There were some very good options and I chose between the best two or three.”

He said he spoke with Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho “and he said what I wanted to hear. He won me over and convinced me. It all happened very quickly from that point. This is not the right moment to talk about this, though, as we need to be focused on the national team and the World Cup.”

Fabregas leaves Barcelona after three seasons with his boyhood club, where he was never fully embraced. “My era at Barcelona is over and there is nothing more to say,” he said.

Fabregas was a second-half substitute for Spain as they crashed to a 5-1 defeat against the Netherlands in their opening game in World Cup Group B.

He said that he and his teammates were seeking inspiration from the World Cup four years ago in South Africa, when Spain defeated Chile in the group stage after having lost their opener 1-0 against Switzerland.

“We need to think about what we have achieved over the past six years,” Fabregas said, referring to Spain’s European Championship triumphs in 2008 and 2012.

“You can’t live in the past, but there are positive things that can be taken from four years ago when we also played Chile and we won 2-1.

“It was a different situation as we didn’t need as many goals and Chile were also qualified so they didn’t need to fight, but there are similarities.”

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The specs
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Transmission: 7-speed PDK auto or 6-speed manual
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Company Profile:

Name: The Protein Bakeshop

Date of start: 2013

Founders: Rashi Chowdhary and Saad Umerani

Based: Dubai

Size, number of employees: 12

Funding/investors:  $400,000 (2018) 

DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE

Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, Emma Corrin

Director: Shawn Levy

Rating: 3/5

What can victims do?

Always use only regulated platforms

Stop all transactions and communication on suspicion

Save all evidence (screenshots, chat logs, transaction IDs)

Report to local authorities

Warn others to prevent further harm

Courtesy: Crystal Intelligence

What can you do?

Document everything immediately; including dates, times, locations and witnesses

Seek professional advice from a legal expert

You can report an incident to HR or an immediate supervisor

You can use the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation’s dedicated hotline

In criminal cases, you can contact the police for additional support

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In numbers: China in Dubai

The number of Chinese people living in Dubai: An estimated 200,000

Number of Chinese people in International City: Almost 50,000

Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2018/19: 120,000

Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2010: 20,000

Percentage increase in visitors in eight years: 500 per cent

The%20Specs%20
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Three tips from La Perle's performers

1 The kind of water athletes drink is important. Gwilym Hooson, a 28-year-old British performer who is currently recovering from knee surgery, found that out when the company was still in Studio City, training for 12 hours a day. “The physio team was like: ‘Why is everyone getting cramps?’ And then they realised we had to add salt and sugar to the water,” he says.

2 A little chocolate is a good thing. “It’s emergency energy,” says Craig Paul Smith, La Perle’s head coach and former Cirque du Soleil performer, gesturing to an almost-empty open box of mini chocolate bars on his desk backstage.

3 Take chances, says Young, who has worked all over the world, including most recently at Dragone’s show in China. “Every time we go out of our comfort zone, we learn a lot about ourselves,” she says.

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.

Virtual banks explained

What is a virtual bank?

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority defines it as a bank that delivers services through the internet or other electronic channels instead of physical branches. That means not only facilitating payments but accepting deposits and making loans, just like traditional ones. Other terms used interchangeably include digital or digital-only banks or neobanks. By contrast, so-called digital wallets or e-wallets such as Apple Pay, PayPal or Google Pay usually serve as intermediaries between a consumer’s traditional account or credit card and a merchant, usually via a smartphone or computer.

What’s the draw in Asia?

Hundreds of millions of people under-served by traditional institutions, for one thing. In China, India and elsewhere, digital wallets such as Alipay, WeChat Pay and Paytm have already become ubiquitous, offering millions of people an easy way to store and spend their money via mobile phone. Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines are also among the world’s biggest under-banked countries; together they have almost half a billion people.

Is Hong Kong short of banks?

No, but the city is among the most cash-reliant major economies, leaving room for newcomers to disrupt the entrenched industry. Ant Financial, an Alibaba Group Holding affiliate that runs Alipay and MYBank, and Tencent Holdings, the company behind WeBank and WeChat Pay, are among the owners of the eight ventures licensed to create virtual banks in Hong Kong, with operations expected to start as early as the end of the year. 

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Saturday
Atletico Madrid v Sevilla (3pm) 
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Getafe v Villarreal (6.15pm) 
Eibar v Celta Vigo (8.30pm)
Las Palmas v Leganes (8.30pm)
Real Sociedad v Valencia (10.45pm)

Monday
Real Betis v Levante (11.pm)

Brolliology: A History of the Umbrella in Life and Literature
By Marion Rankine
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MATCH INFO

Uefa Champions League last-16, second leg:

Real Madrid 1 (Asensio 70'), Ajax 4 (Ziyech 7', Neres 18', Tadic 62', Schone 72')

Ajax win 5-3 on aggregate