UEFA Nations League To Have New Knockout Round After 2024

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January 26, 2023

UEFA Nations League Semi Final Draw – Nyon, Switzerland – January 25, 2023 The Nations League trophy is seen on display before the draw

The UEFA Nations League will be expanded with a new knockout round after 2024, European soccer’s governing body said on Wednesday following its executive committee’s meeting in Nyon, Switzerland.

The knockout round will be played in March and create continuity between the group phase ending in November and the Finals in June.

League A group winners and runners-up will participate in home-and-away format quarter-finals, with the winners qualifying for the final four.

The third-ranked team in League A and the runners-up in League B, as well as the third-ranked League B side and the League C runners-up will play a home-and-away promotion and relegation playoff.

“By introducing the new knockout phase, teams will be given even more opportunities to progress while keeping the same number of games within the international match calendar,” said UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin.

In another change, the European qualifiers for the European Championship and World Cup will be more consolidated, with teams being drawn in 12 groups of four and five teams.

“The predictability of the European qualifiers has also been addressed and tackled, with a fresh new format that will offer all the teams an equal chance to qualify for major tournaments,” Ceferin added.

The new formats for these competitions will come into effect in September, 2024, UEFA said in a statement.

Russia, which sent officials from its football union to Switzerland to meet UEFA a day ahead of the executive committee meeting, was barred from taking part in or hosting UEFA or FIFA competitions following its invasion of Ukraine last year.

UEFA decided that Russia, which hosted the 2018 men’s World Cup, could not participate in qualifying for Euro 2024, which beings in March.

This year’s UEFA Super Cup has been moved from Kazan, Russia to Athens, Greece.

Spotify boss who Signed Harry and Meghan podcast Quits as Streaming Giant cuts 600

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Jamima Joseph

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January 26, 2023

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Jobs in technology, more update on the Spotify story, Spotify executive who signed up harry and Meghan in a multi-million-pound podcast deal is leaving as the company slashes hundreds of jobs.

chief content officer dawn ostroff was driving the streaming business’s move into podcasts. she secured the duke and duchess of Sussex’s archetypes series in a deal that was thought to be worth £ 20 million, but announcing around 600 job cuts and a management shake-up, chief executive Daniel Ek said yesterday Ostroff has ‘decided to depart Spotify.

The group employs almost 10,000 staff worldwide, with around 671 in the UK. The company said cost-cutting efforts in recent months had failed to shift the dial and more drastic changes were needed to boost business, including ‘fundamentally changing how we operate at the top’.

The company said Ostroff helped expand the podcast content by 40 times, signing major contracts with Harry and Meghan and the Obamas. but this shift to podcast and content investment has come at a cost as the firm racked up losses of £ 130 million in the nine months to September 30.

The growing pressure on consumer spending and a broader tech sell-off has also hurt Spotify’s stock. Shares are down more than 70% from their peak in February 2021, eroding the company’s value by over £40 billion.

Spotify’s employment losses, according to Alice Enders, head of research at Enders Analysis, are “inevitable” for a business that depends so largely on advertising.

Since more than half of Spotify’s 456 million monthly users listen for free, any decline in worldwide advertising is expected to have a significant impact on the service.

The same advertising pressure has led to significant job losses recently at Twitter, Snapchat, and Facebook-owned Meta.

Paolo Pescatore, a tech analyst at PP Foresight, claimed that layoffs are simply “the flavor of the month” for internet companies. Amazon.

Microsoft and Google parent Alphabet have both announced layoffs just this month. According to the data website Layoffs. over 55,000 people have lost their employment at tech companies so far in 2023, bringing the total number of job losses since the beginning of 2021 to well over 200,000.

Throwback Thursday – 1887 – Ground Broken, Construction Begins On Eiffel Tower In Paris

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Angel Gimalo

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January 26, 2023

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26th January 1887 – Origins and Construction of the Eiffel Tower. It was at the 1889 Exposition Universelle, the date that marked the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution, that a great competition was launched in the Journal Officiel. The first digging work started on the 26th January 1887.

The plan to build a tower 300 metres high was conceived as part of preparations for the World’s Fair of 1889.

The wager was to “study the possibility of erecting an iron tower on the Champ-de-Mars with a square base, 125 metres across and 300 metres tall”. Selected from among 107 projects, it was that of Gustave Eiffel, an entrepreneur, Maurice Koechlin and Emile Nouguier, both engineers, and Stephen Sauvestre, an architect, that was accepted.

Emile Nouguier and Maurice Koechlin, the two chief engineers in Eiffel’s company, had the idea for a very tall tower in June 1884.

It was to be designed like a large pylon with four columns of lattice work girders, separated at the base and coming together at the top, and joined to each other by more metal girders at regular intervals.

The tower project was a bold extension of this principle up to a height of 300 metres – equivalent to the symbolic figure of 1000 feet.

On September 18 1884, Eiffel registered a patent “for a new configuration allowing the construction of metal supports and pylons capable of exceeding a height of 300 metres”.

In order to make the project more acceptable to public opinion, Nouguier and Koechlin commissioned the architect Stephen Sauvestre to work on the project’s appearance.

The main structural work was completed at the end of March 1889 and on 31 March, Eiffel celebrated by leading a group of government officials, accompanied by representatives of the press, to the top of the tower.

Exploring An 1859 Settlement, Darwin In Falkland Islands

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Angel Gimalo

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January 26, 2023

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Darwin is a small settlement which occasionally is known as Port Darwin, and it is located on the Lafonia Peninsula, which forms the southern part of the East Falkland Island in the South Atlantic Ocean, within the British Overseas Territory of the Falkland Islands.

Being named after the great English naturalist and geologist, Charles Darwin, who at one time carried out a zoological survey of the Falkland Islands in the Beagle’s second voyage, and it is said that he also spent the night where the settlement is located today.

As it was in the past the largest settlement on the islands with approximately 200 working people on the farm located in the city, nowadays is reduced throughout the years not exceeding 10 people for many years.

Established in 1859 as a center first for cattle ranching, it retains much evidence of the lives of early settlers including a stone corral, the “galpon” and nearby turf walls.

Later Darwin transferred into sheep farming, which at that time was seen as a more productive branch, and at the height of its development, it was one of the most important city-like places to be.

By 1920, the area became too small for the thriving settlement, and over the next 2 years, all the farm buildings, the church, and most of the houses were transferred to Goose Green, which today is a large sheep farm owned by Falklands Landholdings and counts some 90,000 sheep.

Nonetheless, there are two listed buildings here, the galpon and the Stone Corral, but those who are going to visit it, they can enjoy in the angling, walking, craft workshops and visits to sites connected with the 1982 war and wildlife.

If one would like to get some rest, then the Darwin House could be the place to experience the Darwin settlement, a guest house that offers six excellent en-suite guest bedrooms, where the enjoyment is extended with the fine farmhouse cooking with food produced locally including home grown vegetable, organic beef, lamb and fish caught right outside their door.

Living condition of Nigerian Professors encouraging Brain Drain – Doctor

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Cleopatra Okohai

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January 26, 2023

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A medical doctor and Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Save a Life Group, Dr. Richard Okoye, has said the condition of professors, especially in the health sector, has increased the number of younger doctors traveling abroad for a better deal.

Dr. Okoye stated this during a media interaction with news men in Port Harcourt on Wednesday.

He stated that building a robust healthcare system was all about human capital development, saying it was important to reward people based on value addition.

Dr. Okoye, who would be decorated with the Sun Newspapers 2022 Public Service Award on Saturday, January 28, 2023, in Lagos State, stated that more attention must be paid to the country’s health sector.

He stated, “A hotel can be a structure of a hospital. It is the kind of service that is being delivered in that structure that makes you call it a hotel or you call it a hospital.

“So, when it has to do with people compelled to travel out of the country, it is because that particular robust healthcare system has not been built. And how will it be built? “You have a number of people that have what is called super specialties. When you have the right infrastructure you also need somebody to man it.

“The issue remains that a doctor that goes outside and gets trained in some of these advanced methods of treatment, while he will be there he knows how much these doctors earn by reason of getting extra from that super specialty. And out of patriotism and passion for the people he will return back.

“Only when he comes into the Teaching Hospital of a State Government owned hospital to do those things if the facilities are available to somebody by reason of the salary structure.”

Continuing, Okoye, who is the founder of Save a Life Hospital based in Port Harcourt, Rivers State added, “You belong to level 12.4 and that is your salary. You are killing that motivation the person came back with.

He stressed that in the current dispensation, people were being paid based on the value they bring into the system.

He added, “There should be a complete restructuring of the salary scale by the federal government, particularly in the healthcare sector. Many younger doctors are zooming out of the country today because they are discouraged by the state of their professors and senior colleagues.

“When they see a professor living miserably. He can’t even maintain his car. If you see the man, you can see poverty personified. And who you follow determines what follows you. You instantly know that this professor is where you are ending. So you are bound to take off.”

On the upsurge of cancer-related ailments in the country, Okoye said it was unfortunate.

“It is hurting that today we don’t have cancer survivors in Nigeria. The reason is simple. It is because when people have the problem, they don’t know the cause of the problem and how to go about it,” he said.

Once Upon A Time – January 26 – 1972 – Serbian Air Stewardess Survives 10,160m Fall Without Parachute

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Angel Gimalo

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January 26, 2023

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1482 “Pentateuch” the Jewish Bible is 1st printed as a book in Bologna, Italy

1531 Lisbon hit by Earthquake; about 30,000 die

1564 The Council of Trent issued its conclusions in the Tridentinum, establishing a distinction between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism

1788 Captain Arthur Phillip and British colonists hoist the Union Flag at Sydney Cove, New South Wales, now celebrated as Australia Day. Referred to as Invasion Day by some First Nations people.

1998 President Bill Clinton says “I want to say one thing to the American people; I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky”

Historical Events Today Events In 2022

Today In Film & TV

1926 John Logie Baird gives the first public demonstration of television in his laboratory in London

Today In Music

1790 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s opera “Cosi Fan Tutte” premieres at the Burgtheater in Vienna, Austria

Today In Sport

1871 The Rugby Football Union is formed at a meeting of 21 clubs at the Pall Mall Restaurant, London, England

1980 175,000 pay to hear Frank Sinatra sing in Rio de Janeiro

1972 Serbian air stewardess Vesna Vulovic survives 10,160m fall without parachute – world’s highest fall without a parachute

Famous Weddings

1858 Inventor Cyrus McCormick (48) weds Nancy Fowler

1905 General officer John J. Pershing (44) weds Helen Frances

1925 Politician Seán MacBride (21) weds Catalina Bulfin in Dublin, Ireland

British Prime Minister issued a fine for not using a seatbelt in an official vehicle

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Jamima Joseph

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January 25, 2023

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Police imposed punishment on UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak for not using a seatbelt while driving.

Sunak apologized for a “short lapse of judgment” while filming an Instagram video in northern England, according to Sunak’s spokeswoman, who also advised people to buckle up.

In this screen capture from a social media video on January 19, 2023, Sunak doesn’t seem to be using his seatbelt.

You probably already know that a video that has been making the rounds on social media depicts a passenger in a moving car in Lancashire without fastening their seatbelt.

After investigating the situation, we handed a 42-year-old male from London a conditional offer of a fixed penalty today (Friday, January 20th).

In the UK, if you don’t use a seatbelt while one is provided, you might be fined up to £500, unless you have a legal defense.

Sunak has been fined by the police twice while he is in office. Police issued fines to former Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Finance Minister Sunak in August 2022 for lockdown-invading parties that were held on UK government property.

Spotify To Axe 6% Of Its Workforce

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Jamima Joseph

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January 25, 2023

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streaming service for music As the economy continues to deteriorate, Spotify announces it is eliminating 600 positions or 6% of its global workforce. Spotify is just the latest tech corporation forced to reevaluate its pandemic-era expansion.

We’ve made the tough but necessary choice to cut our staff size as part of the redesign, which involves a management shake-up, “and to bring our costs more in line,” Mr. Ek wrote.

This month, major tech firms like Amazon, Microsoft, and Google made tens of thousands of employment losses as the COVID-19 pandemic-related economic boom began to fade.

The pandemic lockdown benefited Stockholm-based Spotify because more individuals had looked for entertainment while confined at home. Mr. Ek said that the business strategy of the corporation, which has long prioritized growth, needed to change.

The gap between the company’s operating costs and revenue growth last year was “unsustainable long-term” in any economic situation, but it would be significantly tougher to close in “a negative macro environment,” he said.

The efforts Spotify made to cut costs over the previous three months, according to Mr. Ek, “just haven’t been enough. “I intended to maintain the pandemic’s strong tailwinds and assumed that our extensive global business and lesser risk to the effects of a slowdown in advertising would protect us, according to Mr. Ek.

I should not have invested before our sales increased, in retrospect. He claimed it was the reason the business was reducing its global headcount by around 6%.

Although Mr. Ek could not provide an accurate number, a company representative estimated 600 job losses based on the 9,808 employees mentioned in the most recent quarterly report.

I fully accept responsibility for the actions that led to where we are now, Mr. Ek stated. After years of exuberant development, analysts claim IT businesses are being forced to slash staff in anticipation of a slowdown in the economy that will probably result in lower demand for their software, goods, and services as well as lower spending on digital advertising.

Google and Microsoft both announced job losses only last week, totaling 12,000 and 10,000 respectively. This brings the total number of layoffs disclosed by Big Tech companies in January to at least 48,000.

The majority of tech companies are still far bigger than they were three years ago, despite all of the recent layoffs. Before the pandemic hit, Spotify had 4,405 employees, according to its annual report for that year.

Flavored Cannabis Marketing criticized for Targeting Kids

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Jamima Joseph

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January 25, 2023

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For decades, health advocates have chided the tobacco industry for marketing harmful nicotine products to children, resulting in more cities and states, like new york, outlawing flavored tobacco products, including e-cigarettes.

as cannabis shops proliferate across the country, the same concerns are growing over the packaging and marketing of flavored cannabis, that critics say could entice

children to partake of products labeled “mad mango,” “loud lemon” and “peach dream.”

inside new york’s first licensed recreational marijuana outlet, run by the nonprofit

housing works, shelves of marijuana, brim with vape cartridges suggesting flavors of

pineapple, grapefruit, and cereal milk, written in rainbow bubble letter print.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced the upcoming opening of the state’s second legal dispensary, which will be located in Manhattan’s West Village. The new venture — called “Smacked” — will open as a pop-up next week before opening a permanent location.

A juvenile found in possession of marijuana might be fined up to $50 under state law. Cannabis merchants with permits who sell to minors risk penalties and license revocation but not jail time.

Science has known for a long time that nicotine is addictive and that smoking tobacco causes diseases like emphysema and cancer.

The effects of vaping on health are less clear, especially for young children whose bodies and internal organs are still growing.

While teen and young adult tobacco cigarette consumption has decreased, e-cigarette and vape use has increased.

Most flavored tobacco products, including e-cigarettes and vapes, are prohibited in a select few states, including California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and Rhode Island. Similar restrictions are in place in a growing number of places, including New York City.

However, such regulations must be expanded to cover marijuana, according to Linda Richter of the Partnership to End Addiction, who claims that the problem has not yet received adequate attention.

She claimed that the cannabis sector is subject to very less rules, regulations, restrictions, and scrutiny compared to the tobacco industry.

She continued by saying that because the legalized business is still relatively young, states have not yet unified their regulations under a single federal norm. The federal government is frequently looked to for setting these rules, although marijuana is still prohibited at the federal level.

In order to develop guidelines to prevent marketing that appeals to young people, Richter said, “it’s a significant difficulty where you don’t have the weight of the federal government in terms of norms of packaging and marketing.”

Australian Open: Azarenka Into Another Semi Final For First Time In 10 Years

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Emenike Agu

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January 25, 2023

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Azarenka, 33, is into the semifinal hoping to go all the way and capture her third Australian Open title 11 years after her first

Two-time Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka is in another semi final down under for the first time in 10 years. Azarenka trounced top-seeded Jessica Pegula 6-4, 6-1, in one hour and 37 minutes.

The former world No. 1 was the fastest off the blocks and raced to a 3-0 lead in 13 minutes of the first set before Pegula, seeded No. 3 in Melbourne, got on the board.

Azarenka hit 17 winners but made just 20 unforced errors compared to Pegula’s 31 and won 74 points to 54 for her opponent. After winning in 2012 and 2013, this is the first time she is making it into the semifinals of her favourite tournament.

During the on-court interview, Azarenka revealed: “It hurts to beat her, I always want her to do well. At the same time, I knew I had to play my best. She’s been amazing, so consistent.

“I knew from the very first point I had to bring it, to take my opportunities. I’m very proud I executed my game plan very well. It’s so amazing to be in the semifinals of another Grand Slam,” Azarenka, 33, added.

Pegula, who was in the midst of an eight-match winning streak, praised her more experienced rival and claimed the two-time champion was constantly one step ahead of her during the contest.

“Hitting the ball deep, taking it early, changing the direction on the ball—doing things that I usually like to do to people,” Pegula told WTA Insider.

“She was doing it well. [She] made it tough for me to feel I could really pressure her [and] felt like she was pressuring me constantly the whole time.”

Her semifinal opponent will be the reigning Wimbledon champion, Elena Rybakina, who defeated Jelena Ostapenko 6-2, 6-4, in 79 minutes.