Follow the latest news on the 2024 Paris Olympics
Tunisian teenager Ahmed Jaouadi produced a sensational performance on Monday to secure his spot in the 800m freestyle final at Paris La Defense Arena.
The 19-year-old won his heat in 7:42.07, smashing his personal best by three seconds and recording the second-fastest time going into Tuesday's final.
Only Ireland's Daniel Wiffen posted a quicker time across the heats – at 7:41.53 which was just .25 off Mykhailo Romanchuk's Olympic record – and Jaouadi, who trains in France, will have his eyes on a podium finish despite going into the competition as No 10 seed.
But he will also be up against Italy's three-time Olympic medallist Gregorio Paltrinieri and reigning champion Bobby Finke of the US, who qualified third and fifth, respectively.
Jaouadi's latest performance continues a rapid upwards trajectory this year that has seen him consistently improve on his PB with his last time of 7:45.31 having only been clocked at the French Elite Championships in June.
Tunisia has a strong tradition in the distance freestyle events and Jaouad will be joining some of his country's most successful swimmers of all-time should he come home from Paris with a medal, most notably Ahmed Hafnaoui and Ous Mellouli who were both double world champions who secured three Olympic golds between them.
In boxing, there was disappointment for Jordan's Obada Al Kasbeh, who exited at the last-16 stage of the 63.5kg competition following a unanimous 5-0 defeat to home favourite Sofiane Oumiha.
Al Kasbeh, 29, qualified for this round by beating Ireland's Dean Clancy but was in deep with the slick Oumiha who is among the favourites for gold.
The Jordanian fighter looked to put the pressure on but was caught regularly and cleanly by the fleet-footed Oumiha who delighted in boxing off the back foot. Rounds one and two both ended in a 4-1 split in favour of Oumiha who was then able to skirt the outside of the ring and stay out of trouble as Al Kasbeh looked to turn the tables in the third.
A packed crowd at the North Paris Arena in Seine-Saint-Denis cheered every time Oumiha landed and roared him to a decisive victory.
The Frenchman, also 29, will face Hungary's Richard Kovacs in the next round after he defeated Harry Garside of Australia earlier in the day. Should Oumiha make it to the semi-finals, he could meet the exciting Uzbekistani fighter Ruslan Abdullaev, who also posted an emphatic win in his opening bout.
Meanwhile, Al Kasbeh's teammate Hussein Ishaish will make his Paris 2024 debut on Tuesday when he enters the 80kg competition at the last-16 stage.
Ishaish was given a bye in the first round and will take on Croatia's Gabrijel Veocic for a place in the quarter-finals.
Hussein's younger brother Zeyad has already produced perhaps the biggest shock of the boxing tournament so far when he upset gold medal favourite Aslanbek Shymbergenov from Kazakhstan in the 71kg category.
Zeyad Ishaish, 25, will now face Japan's Sewon Okazawa, the 2021 world gold medal winner at welterweight, for a place in the quarter-finals on Wednesday.
Should he get that far then he will meet either Lewis Richardson of Team GB or Serbia's Vakhid Abbasov.
Ishaish and Okazawa have met three times previously with the Japanese fighter leading the head-to-head 2-1. He won their first fight five years ago but Ishaish has improved markedly since then. Their two most recent bouts were shared one win apiece and both settled by split decision.
Egypt's Mohamed Hamza saw his medal bid in the men's individual foil ended at the quarter-final stage by Italy's Filippo Macchi.
Hamza had already posted two impressive victories over Poland's Jan Jurkiewicz and then Carlos Llavador of Spain to raise hopes of a podium finish in Paris.
But ultimately Macchi proved too strong as he wrapped up a 15-9 win to reach the last four.
How much do leading UAE’s UK curriculum schools charge for Year 6?
- Nord Anglia International School (Dubai) – Dh85,032
- Kings School Al Barsha (Dubai) – Dh71,905
- Brighton College Abu Dhabi - Dh68,560
- Jumeirah English Speaking School (Dubai) – Dh59,728
- Gems Wellington International School – Dubai Branch – Dh58,488
- The British School Al Khubairat (Abu Dhabi) - Dh54,170
- Dubai English Speaking School – Dh51,269
*Annual tuition fees covering the 2024/2025 academic year
SERIE A FIXTURES
Saturday Spezia v Lazio (6pm), Juventus v Torino (9pm), Inter Milan v Bologna (7.45pm)
Sunday Verona v Cagliari (3.30pm), Parma v Benevento, AS Roma v Sassuolo, Udinese v Atalanta (all 6pm), Crotone v Napoli (9pm), Sampdoria v AC Milan (11.45pm)
Monday Fiorentina v Genoa (11.45pm)
box
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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.
Singham Again
Director: Rohit Shetty
Stars: Ajay Devgn, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Ranveer Singh, Akshay Kumar, Tiger Shroff, Deepika Padukone
Rating: 3/5
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Islamophobia definition
A widely accepted definition was made by the All Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims in 2019: “Islamophobia is rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness.” It further defines it as “inciting hatred or violence against Muslims”.
COMPANY PROFILE
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Rashid & Rajab
Director: Mohammed Saeed Harib
Stars: Shadi Alfons, Marwan Abdullah, Doaa Mostafa Ragab
Two stars out of five
Despacito's dominance in numbers
Released: 2017
Peak chart position: No.1 in more than 47 countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Lebanon
Views: 5.3 billion on YouTube
Sales: With 10 million downloads in the US, Despacito became the first Latin single to receive Diamond sales certification
Streams: 1.3 billion combined audio and video by the end of 2017, making it the biggest digital hit of the year.
Awards: 17, including Record of the Year at last year’s prestigious Latin Grammy Awards, as well as five Billboard Music Awards
Key findings of Jenkins report
- Founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hassan al Banna, "accepted the political utility of violence"
- Views of key Muslim Brotherhood ideologue, Sayyid Qutb, have “consistently been understood” as permitting “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” and “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement.
- Muslim Brotherhood at all levels has repeatedly defended Hamas attacks against Israel, including the use of suicide bombers and the killing of civilians.
- Laying out the report in the House of Commons, David Cameron told MPs: "The main findings of the review support the conclusion that membership of, association with, or influence by the Muslim Brotherhood should be considered as a possible indicator of extremism."
