French club Lyon stoked the flames of the Ronaldo-Messi rivalry in their announcement video for Argentine midfielder Thiago Almada.

With the January football transfer window currently open and clubs across Europe looking to add talent to their rosters for the run-in in the second half of the season, French team Olympique Lyonnais have made the exciting signing of Argentine midfielder Thiago Almada. Almada joins on an initial loan from Brazilian club Botafogo, but his announcement was made in style in the latest in a long line of iconic transfer videos.

The 23-year-old midfielder’s signing was announced through a video shared by Lyon in which he receives a text message from ‘Lionel’ along with a goat emoji, clearly meant to be the legendary Lionel Messi, Almada’s compatriot and teammate in the Argentine national team. The text sent to Almada in this video reads “Don’t listen to Cristiano, Ligue 1 is incredible.”

Lyon’s retribution for Ronaldo’s comments
The text provides a sneaky tongue-in-cheek remark from the seven-time French champions, who are referencing Cristiano Ronaldo’s past comment regarding Ligue 1 being a weaker competition than the Saudi Pro League, where he currently plies his trade for Al Nassr. Ronaldo had claimed there was a better standard of football in Saudi Arabia, with the French league considered the weakest of the ‘top five’ leagues in Europe.

Messi, meanwhile, spent two years playing in France, having spent a period in the capital with Paris Saint-Germain after leaving Barcelona. Messi was the latest star at PSG, playing alongside Neymar Jr and Kylian Mbappe, before the trio was broken up as they left France with Messi heading to Inter Miami, Neymar to Al Hilal in Saudi Arabia, and Mbappe finally getting his marquee move to Real Madrid.

Almada was part of the Argentina squad that lifted the World Cup trophy in Qatar in 2022, helping Messi finally get his hands on the coveted trophy and firmly setting his status as the greatest of all time in stone. Almada has represented Argentina six times, scoring twice, and finally earned a move to Europe after playing for Atlanta United in the MLS and a brief spell in the Brazilian Serie A at Botafogo. Almada will be joining fellow Argentine Nicolas Tagliafico, who also made a cameo appearance in the announcement video.

Lyon currently sit in sixth place in the Ligue 1 table with half the season concluded, but will have intentions of fighting for spots in next year’s UEFA Champions League with a strong end to the season, in which Almada could play an important role.

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The conflict was triggered by Hamas’s brazen terror attacks on southern Israel on October 7, 2023 that killed almost 1,200 people

India on Thursday welcomed the ceasefire deal reached between Israel and Hamas and reiterated its call for a return to a path of dialogue and diplomacy.

Negotiators from Israel and Hamas have agreed on a 42-day truce and hostage release, and the deal will come into effect on January 19, US President Joe Biden and Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani said on Wednesday. The truce comes after more than 460 days of war that has devastated Gaza.

“We welcome the announcement of the agreement for the release of hostages and a ceasefire in Gaza,” the external affairs ministry said in a brief statement.

“We hope this will lead to a safe and sustained supply of humanitarian assistance to the people of Gaza. We have consistently called for release of all hostages, ceasefire, and return to a path of dialogue and diplomacy,” the statement said.

The conflict was triggered by Hamas’s brazen terror attacks on southern Israel on October 7, 2023 that killed almost 1,200 people. More than 46,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s retaliatory attacks and bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

Qatar’s prime minister told reporters that Israel and Hamas were still to conclude some logistical matters related to the ceasefire, while the office of the Israeli prime minister said in a statement that a number of details of the agreement remained unresolved. The deal also needs to be formally ratified by the Israeli cabinet and the government.

The initial phase of the ceasefire, set to last six weeks, will see a limited prisoner exchange, partial withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza and a surge of aid into the region. Thirty-three Israeli nationals taken hostage during the October 7 attacks will be released in exchange for a large number of Palestinian prisoners, according to reports.

Around 100 Israeli hostages are thought to be still in Gaza, though Israeli authorities believe some if them are dead.

India initially expressed solidarity with Israel after the attacks by Hamas, in line with its “zero tolerance” policy on terrorism, but it adopted a more nuanced position subsequently because of concerns expressed by Arab partners.

India has strong strategic ties with Israel while Arab states are key sources of energy and have developed stronger defence and security ties with India in the past decade. India also had significant concerns about the potential expansion of the conflict because West Asia is home to nine million Indians, with almost six million of them concentrated in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

As the war dragged on, India repeatedly urged Israel to be mindful of humanitarian concerns in its response. The Indian side also called for the unimpeded provision of humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza and a return to the path of dialogue and diplomacy aimed at finding a two-state solution.

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Fire tornadoes are risk under California’s extreme wildfire conditions

As if they aren’t already facing enough, firefighters in California also could encounter fire tornadoes — a rare but dangerous phenomenon in which wildfires create their own weather.

The National Weather Service warned Tuesday that the combination of high winds and severely dry conditions have created a “particularly dangerous situation” in which any new fire could explode in size. The advisory, which runs into Wednesday, didn’t mention tornadoes, but meteorologist Todd Hall said they’re possible given the extreme conditions.

A look at fire tornados:

What is a fire tornado?
Fire whirl, fire devil, fire tornado or even firenado — scientists, firefighters and regular folks use multiple terms to describe similar phenomena, and they don’t always agree on what’s what. Some say fire whirls are formed only by heat, while fire tornados involve clouds generated by the fire itself.

The National Wildfire Coordinating Group’s glossary of wildland fire terms doesn’t include an entry for fire tornado, but it defines a fire whirl as a “spinning vortex column of ascending hot air and gases rising from a fire and carrying aloft smoke, debris and flame,” and says large whirls “have the intensity of a small tornado.”

Wildfires with turbulent plumes can produce clouds that in turn can produce lightning or a vortex of ash, smoke and flames, said Leila Carvalho, professor of meteorology and climatology at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

“There is a rotation caused by very strong wind shear and a very hot, localized low-pressure system,” she said.

What is a fire tornado capable of?
Fire tornados can make fires stronger by sucking up air, Carvalho said. “It creates a tornado track, and wherever this goes, the destruction is like any other tornado.”

In 2018, a fire tornado the size of three football fields killed a firefighter as it exploded in what already was a vast and devastating wildfire near near Redding, about 250 miles (400 kilometers) north of San Francisco in northern California. Scientists later described an ice-capped cloud that reached 7 miles (11 km) into the air and caused winds up to 143 mph (230 kph).

Research also suggests fire tornadoes can carry airborne embers, also called firebrands, over long distances, said James Urban, an assistant professor in the Department of Fire Protection Engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. They also can change the fire’s behaviour, he said.

“That’s also something that is dangerous and scary for first responders, or really anyone,” he said. “It can change and maybe go in a different direction.”

The interaction between wind, the fire plume and topography determines whether a tornado will develop, he said. For example, sometimes a certain topography will restrict airflow in such a way that a spiral pattern develops.

Can you make one in a lab?
Together with San Jose State University, Worcester Polytech is part of a Wildfire Interdisciplinary Research Centre. In the lab in Worcester, researchers have created small fire tornadoes by putting up walls around a fire or arranging a bunch of little fires that together restrict airflow. But that’s on a much smaller scale than what’s happening with the wildfires.

“We’ve got the biggest fire lab in the US for a university, but we cannot get something the size of what’s been reported at these fires,” he said. “You can’t really bottle that and put it in a lab.” (AP)

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