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Turin, Italy – Manchester City’s Phil Foden and Mateo Kovacic returned to training on Tuesday, but manager Pep Guardiola said if the two feature at Juventus on Wednesday, it will be for only a few minutes, as City’s injury troubles show little sign of abating. City takes on the Italian side in the Champions League and, sitting 17th in the table before this week’s slate of games kicked off, Guardiola’s struggling team have three games left to clinch a top-eight spot that would earn a last-16 place and avoid a playoff. Foden is back training after missing two games with bronchitis while Kovacic has been absent since the last international break due to injury. Source link

French President Emmanuel Macron is seeking to free his government from the stranglehold of National Rally leader Marine Le Pen by piecing together a coalition of moderates that will last until 2027. Macron will aim to avoid a new legislative election for more than two years, which is when his term ends, according to an official close to the president. That would defy most expectations for a fresh ballot as soon as July to break France’s political impasse. The current disarray traces back to June, when Macron called a snap legislative election following a disastrous European ballot. That decision backfired, delivering a National Assembly split into three irreconcilable blocs — a leftist alliance, a smaller center backing Macron, and an expanded nationalist group led by Le Pen. Source link

Seoul – South Korea’s former defense minister has been formally arrested on insurrection charges related to President Yoon Suk Yeol’s brief declaration of martial law, which plunged the country into chaos, a court spokesperson said early Wednesday. Yoon suspended civilian rule a week ago and sent special forces and helicopters to parliament, before lawmakers forced him to rescind the decree in a country assumed to be a stable democracy. Two top police officials were also taken into custody in the early hours of Wednesday, as the investigation into the political turmoil caused by the martial law declaration gathered pace. Source link

U.S. President Joe Biden plans to formally block the $14.1 billion sale of United States Steel to Nippon Steel on national security grounds once the deal is referred back to him later this month, people familiar with the matter said. The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States panel, which has been reviewing the proposed takeover for much of this year, must refer its decision to Biden by Dec. 22 or 23, said the people, who asked to not to be identified discussing a confidential process. It’s not clear exactly what the CFIUS review will say. However, any referral to the president suggests at least one member of the panel sees the deal posing a risk. Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel are poised to pursue litigation over the process if Biden decides to block the merger, some of the people said. Source link

Of all the winners and losers from Syria’s sudden change of power, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stands out as among those with the most to gain. Erdogan’s clout over his southern neighbor has increased dramatically with the fall of his onetime friend Bashar Assad, bolstering his political standing at home and in the international arena. Erdogan is regarded as a hero by thousands of Syrian rebels who succeeded in overthrowing Assad with Turkey’s help — as well as by many among the millions of refugees who were given safe haven in Turkey when the Syrian war broke out in 2011. Source link

Aryna Sabalenka has been voted the WTA Player of the Year for the first time after the Belarusian won two Grand Slam titles and secured the year-end world No. 1 ranking, the governing body of women’s tennis said. After successfully defending her Australian Open trophy in January, Sabalenka won the U.S. Open crown in September for her third Grand Slam title and leapfrogged Iga Swiatek to top the world rankings a month later. She also won tournaments in Cincinnati and Wuhan to end her 2024 campaign with four titles. International tennis media also voted for Paris Olympics gold medalists Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini as the year’s top doubles team, while American Emma Navarro was named the season’s most improved player. Ranked 38th at the end of 2023, Navarro broke into the top 10 in September after winning her first title in Hobart and making six semifinal appearances, including at Flushing Meadows, during the season. Lulu Sun won the Newcomer of the Year award following the New Zealander’s run to the quarterfinals at Wimbledon as a qualifier, which helped her climb to 40th in the world after being ranked outside the top 200 in January. Former world number two Paula Badosa, who ended her 2023 season early due to a back problem that cast doubt about her future in the game, was named Comeback Player of the Year. After returning to the tour this season, the Spaniard won the Washington title and also matched her best Grand Slam performance by reaching the U.S. Open quarters to finish the year ranked 12th. Source link

London – Manchester City’s long-awaited hearing into 115 breaches of Premier League rules has concluded, according to reports on Monday, but a verdict is not expected until 2025. The Daily Mail reported that closing arguments in the case, which opened on Sept. 16 at London’s International Dispute Resolution Center, were made to an independent panel on Friday. City strongly denies any wrongdoing, but face severe sanctions if found guilty, including potentially being relegated from the Premier League. Source link

Freelance television announcer Tomoaki Ogura, who served as host of a popular morning show for 22 years, died of bladder cancer at his home in Tokyo on Monday, his talent agency said Tuesday. He was 77. Born in Akita Prefecture, Ogura joined then Television Tokyo Channel 12, now TV Tokyo, as an announcer after graduating from university and turned freelance in 1976. Ogura became famous for his unique narration style featuring his trademark high-pitched voice in Tokyo Broadcasting System Television’s quiz show “Sekai Marugoto How Much,” which was launched in 1983. He took the role of presenter of Fuji Television Network’s morning show “Tokudane!” from 1999 to 2021, gaining popularity for his frank comments. He was also well-versed in sports and reported on Olympic Games from the venues. Ogura engaged in activities such as giving lectures on his treatment experience for diabetes, a condition he developed in his 30s. He announced in 2016 that he had bladder cancer. Ogura continued to work until recently amid his struggle with the disease, which spread to other organs, including his lungs. His condition deteriorated suddenly this month. Source link

China has deployed the largest number of naval ships to regional waters around Taiwan since the mid-1990s, the Defense Ministry in Taipei said Tuesday, amid growing speculation that Beijing has launched another round of war games. While Taiwan’s Defense Ministry announced Tuesday morning that it had spotted a total of 21 Chinese Navy ships and coast guard vessels around the island, media reports citing senior Taiwanese security officials said close to 90 Chinese Navy and coast guard ships had been detected in a broader stretch of waters along the so-called first island chain, which links Japan, Taiwan and the Philippines. A ministry spokesman said the deployments were the largest since China held war games around Taiwan ahead of the island’s 1996 presidential elections. Military vessels had reportedly been dispatched from China’s northern, eastern and southern theater commands. Source link

Kioxia Holdings Corp.’s mammoth initial public offering contains one sign that investor demand for its shares may lack strength: unlike 97% of IPOs by other Japanese firms this year, the deal didn’t price at the upper end of the firm’s proposed range or higher. The Bain Capital-backed memory-chip manufacturer priced its stock at ¥1,455 ($9.6), at the middle of the price range it proposed before the IPO. By contrast, out of 72 IPOs in Japan this year that gave a price range, just one ended up debuting below the upper limit, Japan Exchange Group data show. Kioxia’s offering wasn’t all bad news: the IPO size was ¥120 billion including an overallotment option. That was Japan’s third-biggest deal this year, only surpassed by the leader, Tokyo Metro, and scientific-equipment maker Rigaku Holdings, according to Bloomberg-compiled data. Source link