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Damaging the Spellow Library in a living space in the working class district of Liverpool by rioters in August 2024 was a disgrace say residents. People in the area desperately need safe community space and a chance to read the books they love, say people who came up with funds for restoration.

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Going up - Arsenal, Inter and Bayern Munich. Going down Leverkusen, Benefica and Paris Saint-Germain in the last 16 of Champions League soccer 2025. Inter beat a Dutch team and Bayern beat Leverkusen. Barcelona beat Benefica. Paris lost to Liverpool.

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The story of how Jurgen Klopp took Liverpool to the Champions League and Premier League titles in 2020. For all the illusion that the titles were a procession Liverpool started out with problematic losses to Dortmund, Seville, Napoli. It was the hard work and rigorous practice, self discipline, and renewal, the always focussing on the next step and how to do better regardless of how things look- this has helped Klopp get the team to where it is in world soccer. Continuous improvement setting your own bar of what it is to be to do the work right. In a small town overlooking Lake Geneva soccer practice takes place every day at 7 am, 11 am, 5 pm, in preseason. No distractions, no commercial obligations. Only the coach, players, and staff. Steudtner, German surfer invited by Klopp helped the team cool down in training by focussing underwater on happier places, taking a lot of the stress off the minds of the players. Hold for 30, 40, 60 seconds. Soon everyone could do it. The aim to cool down each player's mindset. A form of meditation. ...

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Raheem Sterling, Manchester City soccer striker takes England to the quarterfinals of Euro Soccer 2021 with his goal in the game against Germany. In that 2-0 game the second goal came from Harvey Kane.

The Guardian gives this story of Raheem growing up in a difficult neighborhood in Kingston, Jamaica. His mother, a nurse, moved to London after losing his father to gang violence. There he played for teams before he was 14, then moving to Liverpool Club, in the north of England. He showed real determination at an early age, and concern for kids growing up near Wembley stadium where he once lived, who had no chance to watch soccer or participate in the game.

 

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Liverpool has lost its World Heritage Site status but this may not be a bad thing, says Christoph Brumann, research leader at the Max Planck Research Institute for Ethnological Research in Halle, Germany. Fewer tourists, he says in this report in DW.com, but now the city can do what it wants to modernize the docks area, and not have to worry about the World Heritage Committee or the British government interfering in its plans. The World Heritage Committee is now subject to diplomatic lobbying of many countries, and the label has lost some of its value as more countries push sites in their country. Liverpool was asked by the World Heritage Committee to stop construction on the waterfront that was helping to bring new life to the city and revitalize the docks area to keep its World Heritage status. In the end the committee that met in China with China as the chair and lobbying by other countries, deteriorating China-UK relations, and and the UK sending only a representative from the Culture Ministry not the Foreign Ministry, played a part in the vote at the World Heritage Committee, says this report. Since 1972 Europe has gained a larger share of the World Heritage Sites. After 2010 meeting in Brazil this has shifted to other countries. There is no clear idea of what a World Heritage site is- cultural, or natural. Cultural is at this point 80% of the sites. This DW report shows some of the contenders in 2021, and only a few of them can be considered to be worthy of visiting. The committee that decides this has removed Dresden for building a new bridge across the Elbe river site, a decision made in 2007, so that it is becoming more controversial. ...

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This report in The Times shows that from April to October the Tory red wall seats in the north of England have been hit hard by the coronavirus, much harder than the south of England. The infection rates in October are about three or four times in the north of England. The second lockdown came earlier in the north, in Liverpool Greater Manchester and Yorkshire. The result is that instead of levelling up the great disparities in wealth and income that are seen between the south, London and the north of England the gap is widening under the impact of coronavirus. Deindustrialization in the north after their prominent role in Britain's industrial revolution was followed by the same type of decline seen in parts of the American midwestern states. Imports from China and globalization, hit these areas in a sort of second wave, just as America was hit first by the wave of Japanese imports, followed by an even bigger wave of imports from China and complete loss of manufacturing. With it the loss of well paying jobs for workers in manufacturing and the decline of industrial cities. Influx of cheap labor from other parts of the European Union also affected the north. The result is that the popularity of Boris Johnson and the Conservatives with 58% approval rating in April in the north of England is replaced by a rating of about 31% in October 2020. The 40 Tory MP's in the Northern Research Group expressed their serious concern to the prime minister. ...

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Tata Motors gets a great deal to have 2 wellknown brands in which Ford has invested some $10 billion for a billion adn half. Is favored to make the deal. Both brands may be turning the corner after years of effort and Tata's management resources and investment potential could make this a good deal for Tata Motors. But there are some risks including the ones mentioned. The US market which accounts for more than 25% of sales is declining, and the fuel saving technologies needed to compete in Europe after 2012 with new mandated emissions reductions mean that Tata will have to develop these technologies in a market where the Germans have significant advantages with their fuel saving technology development. The Halewood factory in Liverpool where the Land Rover Freelander and the Jaguar X-type are made is at risk because with total output of 261,000 Tata may decide to close one of the three factories. This acquisition will push Tata up the learning curve in American and European markets, knowledge which it can use in developing markets for new models it develops in the future with innovation and aggressive pricing....