EPA
Cristiano Ronaldo added a brace to his midweek hat-trick as Real Madrid survived a major second-half scare to defeat derby rivals Rayo Vallecano 3-2 and remain within six points of Primera Division leaders Barcelona.
After a hugely impressive attacking display in their 7-3 mauling of Sevilla on Wednesday, Madrid looked set for another goal glut as their forward trio of Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and Gareth Bale again came to the fore.
Ronaldo, who netted three against Sevilla, opened the scoring early on and then Bale set up further goals for Benzema and Ronaldo again as Madrid stormed into a 3-0 lead after 48 minutes.
However, Carlo Ancelotti’s men were then stunned as Rayo won, and converted, two penalties in three minutes from Jonathan Viera to set up a thrilling final half-hour in which the home side hit the woodwork and came close on a number of other occasions.
Real Sociedad gave themselves the perfect lift ahead of next week’s Champions League clash with Manchester United by thrashing Osasuna 5-0 at home.
Jon Ansotegui headed the hosts in front after 33 minutes, while Inigo Martinez doubled the lead, heading in a corner two minutes into the second half.
Jordan Loties made things even harder for Javi Garcia’s side when he was sent off shortly after the second goal, while Antoine Griezmann later added the third, appearing at the back post to head in a corner.
With 10 minutes remaining Chory Castro increased the damage, and then Haris Seferovic completed the rout on 87 minutes.
Elsewhere, Almeria striker Rodri scored a highly-contested goal with his hand to give his side all three points in a 1-0 win against Real Valladolid.
The Barcelona B loanee decided the game by netting the only goal shortly before half-time, but Valladolid were incensed it was allowed to stand.
Celta Vigo were also victorious as they claimed a 1-0 win over Sevilla after Alex Lopez capitalised on an error by goalkeeper Beto.
The Sevilla keeper made a hash of a clearance to put the ball at the feet of the Celta midfielder, who then beat him one-on-one to fire home in the 47th minute.
Italy
The Serie A chasers did what was necessary to make sure Roma didn’t further distance themselves from the pack while Milan slid further in a disappointing season. Napoli scored twice in the first 20 minutes, with strikes coming from Jose Maria Callejon and Marek Hamsik in a 2-1 win over Catania. Lucas Nahuel Castro responded with a 25th-minute goal for the losing side, but neither club could find net for the next 65 minutes.
Fiorentina took an away win from Milan, orchestrating a clean sheet and taking a goal on each side of half-time for a 2-0 triumph. Juan Vargas and Borja Valero provided the scores for the Florence club.
And Juventus also earned an away win, with Paul Pogba’s 77th-minute strike putting the Turin side over Parma 1-0.
The Serie A table now sees Roma with a two-point advantage over second and third-place Napoli and Juventus with a game in hand. Fiorentina – in fourth with 21 points – left Milan sitting on just 12 points from 11 matches and the possibility of falling behind Torino (who host Roma), Genoa and Cagliari when the three sides within two points of Milan play later today.
Germany
Wolfsburg moved to fifth in the Bundesliga with a 2-1 win over Frankfurt while Eintract delivered a disappointing blow to Leverkusen with a 1-0 win, thanks to Dominick Kumbeala’s 81st-minute winner.
Schalke, sitting sixth, leapt over Hertha Berlin with a 2-0 victory. Adam Szalai scored in the first half and Julian Draxler added another tally late into extra time.
Freiburg beat Nurnberg 3-0 in a battle of two sides inside the relegation zone and Gladbach topped Hamburg 2-0, as well.
France
Lyon, mired in the bottom half of the Ligue 1 table, earned a much-needed 2-0 win over Guingamp - who had been in fifth - with goals from Bafetimbi Gomis and Alexandre Lacazette.
Marseille earned a 1-1 draw away at Rennes and Reims, now sixth, beat Bastia 4-2.
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Qyubic
Started: October 2023
Founder: Namrata Raina
Based: Dubai
Sector: E-commerce
Current number of staff: 10
Investment stage: Pre-seed
Initial investment: Undisclosed
2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, (Leon banned).
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
THE%20SPECS
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The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
The specS: 2018 Toyota Camry
Price: base / as tested: Dh91,000 / Dh114,000
Engine: 3.5-litre V6
Gearbox: Eight-speed automatic
Power: 298hp @ 6,600rpm
Torque: 356Nm @ 4,700rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 7.0L / 100km
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
Cricket World Cup League 2
UAE squad
Rahul Chopra (captain), Aayan Afzal Khan, Ali Naseer, Aryansh Sharma, Basil Hameed, Dhruv Parashar, Junaid Siddique, Muhammad Farooq, Muhammad Jawadullah, Muhammad Waseem, Omid Rahman, Rahul Bhatia, Tanish Suri, Vishnu Sukumaran, Vriitya Aravind
Fixtures
Friday, November 1 – Oman v UAE
Sunday, November 3 – UAE v Netherlands
Thursday, November 7 – UAE v Oman
Saturday, November 9 – Netherlands v UAE
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Where to donate in the UAE
The Emirates Charity Portal
You can donate to several registered charities through a “donation catalogue”. The use of the donation is quite specific, such as buying a fan for a poor family in Niger for Dh130.
The General Authority of Islamic Affairs & Endowments
The site has an e-donation service accepting debit card, credit card or e-Dirham, an electronic payment tool developed by the Ministry of Finance and First Abu Dhabi Bank.
Al Noor Special Needs Centre
You can donate online or order Smiles n’ Stuff products handcrafted by Al Noor students. The centre publishes a wish list of extras needed, starting at Dh500.
Beit Al Khair Society
Beit Al Khair Society has the motto “From – and to – the UAE,” with donations going towards the neediest in the country. Its website has a list of physical donation sites, but people can also contribute money by SMS, bank transfer and through the hotline 800-22554.
Dar Al Ber Society
Dar Al Ber Society, which has charity projects in 39 countries, accept cash payments, money transfers or SMS donations. Its donation hotline is 800-79.
Dubai Cares
Dubai Cares provides several options for individuals and companies to donate, including online, through banks, at retail outlets, via phone and by purchasing Dubai Cares branded merchandise. It is currently running a campaign called Bookings 2030, which allows people to help change the future of six underprivileged children and young people.
Emirates Airline Foundation
Those who travel on Emirates have undoubtedly seen the little donation envelopes in the seat pockets. But the foundation also accepts donations online and in the form of Skywards Miles. Donated miles are used to sponsor travel for doctors, surgeons, engineers and other professionals volunteering on humanitarian missions around the world.
Emirates Red Crescent
On the Emirates Red Crescent website you can choose between 35 different purposes for your donation, such as providing food for fasters, supporting debtors and contributing to a refugee women fund. It also has a list of bank accounts for each donation type.
Gulf for Good
Gulf for Good raises funds for partner charity projects through challenges, like climbing Kilimanjaro and cycling through Thailand. This year’s projects are in partnership with Street Child Nepal, Larchfield Kids, the Foundation for African Empowerment and SOS Children's Villages. Since 2001, the organisation has raised more than $3.5 million (Dh12.8m) in support of over 50 children’s charities.
Noor Dubai Foundation
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum launched the Noor Dubai Foundation a decade ago with the aim of eliminating all forms of preventable blindness globally. You can donate Dh50 to support mobile eye camps by texting the word “Noor” to 4565 (Etisalat) or 4849 (du).
KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
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In Search of Mary Shelley: The Girl Who Wrote Frankenstein
By Fiona Sampson
Profile
Anghami
Started: December 2011
Co-founders: Elie Habib, Eddy Maroun
Based: Beirut and Dubai
Sector: Entertainment
Size: 85 employees
Stage: Series C
Investors: MEVP, du, Mobily, MBC, Samena Capital
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
Bareilly Ki Barfi
Directed by: Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari
Starring: Kriti Sanon, Ayushmann Khurrana, Rajkummar Rao
Three and a half stars
More from Janine di Giovanni
The specs
Engine: 2-litre or 3-litre 4Motion all-wheel-drive Power: 250Nm (2-litre); 340 (3-litre) Torque: 450Nm Transmission: 8-speed automatic Starting price: From Dh212,000 On sale: Now
WHAT IS A BLACK HOLE?
1. Black holes are objects whose gravity is so strong not even light can escape their pull
2. They can be created when massive stars collapse under their own weight
3. Large black holes can also be formed when smaller ones collide and merge
4. The biggest black holes lurk at the centre of many galaxies, including our own
5. Astronomers believe that when the universe was very young, black holes affected how galaxies formed
Getting there
The flights
Emirates and Etihad fly to Johannesburg or Cape Town daily. Flights cost from about Dh3,325, with a flying time of 8hours and 15 minutes. From there, fly South African Airlines or Air Namibia to Namibia’s Windhoek Hosea Kutako International Airport, for about Dh850. Flying time is 2 hours.
The stay
Wilderness Little Kulala offers stays from £460 (Dh2,135) per person, per night. It is one of seven Wilderness Safari lodges in Namibia; www.wilderness-safaris.com.
Skeleton Coast Safaris’ four-day adventure involves joining a very small group in a private plane, flying to some of the remotest areas in the world, with each night spent at a different camp. It costs from US$8,335.30 (Dh30,611); www.skeletoncoastsafaris.com
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
