The first half of the Spanish season is over, with Barcelona nominal "winter champions".
No trophies are awarded and little is gained beyond increased expectations. Fail to convert your winter champion status into league winners in May and you have failed.
Barcelona finished the first half of the season with a record 18 wins and a draw from 19 games.
They are 11 clear of Atletico Madrid in second, 18 ahead of Real Madrid in third. Atletico's form, which includes 10 wins from 10 home matches, has surprised, as has that of another Madrid club, Rayo Vallecano.
Rayo won their fourth successive game – luckily, admittedly – at Athletic Bilbao.
"We had 12 chances, they had three," said Athletic's no-nonsense coach Marcelo Bielsa.
Rayo have risen to sixth, a European spot. It is their best first half of a season, better than in 1999/2000 when Juande Ramos was in charge.
Rayo have made it to Europe only once – and that was thanks to the Fair Play league.
The club from Madrid are achieving against the odds. They have had their fixtures shunted around more than any other club to the least popular slots, playing more games on a Monday than others, and on a Friday, too. Their left-wing fans in their three-sided stadium were not slow to protest and supporters of other clubs sympathise with them.
Rayo started this season as favourites to be relegated. They had lost their star, Michu, to Swansea City in the English Premier League, with their precarious financial situation – they are in administration – meaning they sold him for just £2 million (Dh11.9m).
It was not only Michu. Five players from the first XI last season, and their legendary manager Sandoval, had been sacked after they had slumped at the end of last season. They were 10th after beating Real Betis after 28 games, 17th and facing relegation with a game to go.
Rayo also started this season with the lowest budget in the league. Traditionally, they have brought in loan players and given them an opportunity to shine, or signed young or disenfranchised players and let them prosper with first-team football.
Their star is the 20-year-old Brazilian Leo Baptistao, who will move to neighbours Atletico next season. Yet Rayo continue to thrive and play aggressive, attacking football, even against Barcelona and Madrid.
Their top scorer, Piti, who has nine league goals, played as an amateur until he was 23, and he is loving life. Who can blame him, at a club who plunge to rock bottom … and then rise clutching a bar of gold each time?
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Avatar: Fire and Ash
Director: James Cameron
Starring: Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Zoe Saldana
Rating: 4.5/5
MATCH INFO
Burnley 1 (Brady 89')
Manchester City 4 (Jesus 24', 50', Rodri 68', Mahrez 87')
Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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United States
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China
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UAE
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Japan
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Norway
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Canada
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Singapore
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Australia
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Saudi Arabia
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South Korea
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Company Profile
Name: Thndr
Started: 2019
Co-founders: Ahmad Hammouda and Seif Amr
Sector: FinTech
Headquarters: Egypt
UAE base: Hub71, Abu Dhabi
Current number of staff: More than 150
Funds raised: $22 million
Indoor cricket in a nutshell
Indoor Cricket World Cup – Sep 16-20, Insportz, Dubai
16 Indoor cricket matches are 16 overs per side
8 There are eight players per team
9 There have been nine Indoor Cricket World Cups for men. Australia have won every one.
5 Five runs are deducted from the score when a wickets falls
4 Batsmen bat in pairs, facing four overs per partnership
Scoring In indoor cricket, runs are scored by way of both physical and bonus runs. Physical runs are scored by both batsmen completing a run from one crease to the other. Bonus runs are scored when the ball hits a net in different zones, but only when at least one physical run is score.
Zones
A Front net, behind the striker and wicketkeeper: 0 runs
B Side nets, between the striker and halfway down the pitch: 1 run
C Side nets between halfway and the bowlers end: 2 runs
D Back net: 4 runs on the bounce, 6 runs on the full
HIV on the rise in the region
A 2019 United Nations special analysis on Aids reveals 37 per cent of new HIV infections in the Mena region are from people injecting drugs.
New HIV infections have also risen by 29 per cent in western Europe and Asia, and by 7 per cent in Latin America, but declined elsewhere.
Egypt has shown the highest increase in recorded cases of HIV since 2010, up by 196 per cent.
Access to HIV testing, treatment and care in the region is well below the global average.
Few statistics have been published on the number of cases in the UAE, although a UNAIDS report said 1.5 per cent of the prison population has the virus.
If you go
The flights
There are various ways of getting to the southern Serengeti in Tanzania from the UAE. The exact route and airstrip depends on your overall trip itinerary and which camp you’re staying at.
Flydubai flies direct from Dubai to Kilimanjaro International Airport from Dh1,350 return, including taxes; this can be followed by a short flight from Kilimanjaro to the Serengeti with Coastal Aviation from about US$700 (Dh2,500) return, including taxes. Kenya Airways, Emirates and Etihad offer flights via Nairobi or Dar es Salaam.
