Real Madrid's Bellingham scores again to secure 1-0 win at Celta
Real Madrid's new signing Jude Bellingham scored in the second half to earn his side a third straight win as they beat Celta Vigo 1-0 in LaLiga on Friday to maintain a perfect start.
The 20-year-old once again led the Spanish giants' attack, scoring for the fourth time in his first three league games following Rodrygo's missed penalty earlier in the second half.
Real were dealt an early blow as Brazilian forward Vinicius Jr was forced off with a leg problem after 15 minutes, a notable loss for Carlo Ancelotti's side that comes on top of goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois and defender Éder Militão's injuries.
"Vinicius had some discomfort and we took him off. We'll see what he has in the next few hours, he had some muscular discomfort in his leg," Ancelotti said.
"I don't think [it's serious]. He wanted to carry on...I think after the break [international break], he'll be back. It's a shame, he started well, he looked unstoppable."
It is the first muscle injury suffered by the left winger, who has scored 28 goals with 19 assists for Real since the start of last season.
Ancelotti added that Real will not look for further signings as his squad is strong enough despite injuries and the departure of Ballon d'Or winner Karim Benzema to the Saudi Pro League.
"It is a complete squad. If we are able to win without Courtois, Militao, Karim, Vinicius, it means that the squad is well put together. They have done well," he said.
Celta were also forced into a substitution due to Franco Cervi's injury shortly before halftime.
The visitors had already come under fire in the opening seconds as Celta thought they had taken the lead only for VAR to rule out Jorgen Larsen's effort for a foul on goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga, making his debut following his loan from Chelsea.
"Kepa has played well, a clean sheet is a good sign," said Ancelotti. "He deserved to play, I have said in these games that the goal is well covered, both with Kepa and (Andriy) Lunin."
Rodrygo then had a golden chance to earn Real the lead in the 68th minute with a penalty after keeper Iván Villar tripped him in the box. However, Villar redeemed himself as he dived to his right to keep out the Brazilian forward's spot kick.
"I told (Real midfielder Fede) Valverde that Luka (Modric) had to take the penalty, I don't know what happened between them that they chose Rodrygo," Ancelotti said. "I am a bit upset that Luka didn't take the penalty."
However, England midfielder Bellingham put La Liga leaders Real in front 10 minutes from time with a header from Joselu's touch off a corner to maintain his impressive start.
"Bellingham is doing very well, he keeps scoring. He's doing it because he's moving very well without the ball" Ancelotti said. "He's intelligent, he arrives at the right moment."
After three away matches, high-flying Real will play their first home game next Saturday against Getafe as renovations at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium are completed.
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Zach Bryan releases entirely self-produced album: 'I put everything I could in it'
Country fans are rejoicing this weekend as Zach Bryan’s new album was released Friday.
The 16-track project includes four features — The War And Treaty on “Hey Driver,” Sierra Ferrell guests on “Holy Roller,” Kacey Musgraves on “I Remember Everything” and The Lumineers on “Spotless.”
"I've got no grand explanation for these songs, I got no riddle in reasoning behind writing them," he wrote in a Thursday Instagram post timed to the album's release. "I just wrote some poems and songs that I want to share because I think they're special. Some of them are heavy, some of them are hopeful, but more than anything what's most important to me is that they're all mine.
"I'd like to say that I do not take any of this for granted. As some kid with a guitar from Okla, I am so grateful for each person that cares enough," he continued.
Bryan finished the message with: "I put everything I could in it and I am at a loss for words at what a blessing this life is."
Why 'Deep Satin' is not on the 'Zach Bryan' album
Despite the excitement surrounding the album, many fans were frustrated to hear that the highly anticipated tune “Deep Satin” wouldn't be on it.
However, Bryan explained on X, formerly Twitter, that he chose not to include the song on "Zach Bryan" because he wanted the album to be entirely self-produced, and he did not have a hand in producing “Deep Satin.”
He did assure his fans that “Deep Satin” along with “a few more songs” will be released over the course of the next few months.
“I won’t keep anyone waiting I promise, I love you guys and I am so grateful I get to grow through this life with y’all,” Bryan wrote.
'Zach Bryan' album track list
“Fear & Friday's (Poem)”
“Overtime”
“Summertime’s Close"
“East Side of Sorrow”
“Hey Driver”
“Fear and Fridays”
“Ticking”
“Holy Roller”
“Jake’s Piano / Long Island”
“El Dorado”
“I Remember Everything”
“Tourniquet”
“Spotless”
“Tradesman”
“Smaller Acts”
“Oklahoma Son”
Who is Zach Bryan?
A viral YouTube star turned major-label recording artist, Bryan's sound mixes country, rock and Americana with an earthy authenticity and blue-collar ethos. The Navy veteran's music is rooted in vivid, original songcraft and has blossomed with his fiercely independent spirit, his ferociously faithful fan base and his road-warrior approach to his live shows. Those are all hallmarks of Oklahoma's Red Dirt music.
Given his Oklahoma roots — he was born in Okinawa, Japan, while his family was stationed overseas with the Navy but raised in the small town of Oologah — it isn't surprising that Bryan's music has a distinctive Red Dirt vibe.
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Steelers defeat Falcons, 24-0
It was a perfect ending to a perfect preseason for the Steelers.
They not only went 3-0, winning all of their games in convincing fashion, the first-team offense added two more touchdown drives to its ledger, making that group 5-for-5 scoring touchdowns in the warmup for the 2023 season.
And, oh by the way, the Steelers made it through the process without a major injury to a front-line player, perhaps the most significant part of that equation.
Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren capped off the two possessions in which the first-team offense was on the field Thursday night with touchdown runs, as the Steelers made short work of the Atlanta Falcons here at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, 24-0, to close out their preseason.
Kenny Pickett completed all four of his passes in this game for 86 yards to help set up the touchdown runs by Harris and Warren.
That left Pickett at 13 of 15 for 199 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions in the preseason, a passer rating of a perfect 158.3.
Even though Atlanta didn't play any of their starters, the Steelers felt it was important to perform well.
"It was solidifying the preseason and finishing strong," said Pickett. "Going out there and putting points on the board was really our goal. We went 2-for-2 in touchdowns, so that's a really good sign."
Pickett connected with Diontae Johnson for a 33-yard gain on third-and-5, hitting Johnson down the left sideline, then completed a 35-yard pass to George Pickens down the right sideline to the Atlanta 1 to set up Harris' score to cap off a 92-yard drive.
The catch was what has become vintage Pickens, as he reached above cornerback Natrone Brooks to haul in the pass while contorting his body to keep his feet in bounds.
The Steelers defense got a three-and-out on the ensuing Atlanta possession, as T.J. Watt – seeing limited duty – picked up a second-down sack to put the Falcons further behind the chains after Elandon Roberts had a 4-yard tackle for a loss on first down.
Calvin Austin III returned the ensuing punt 21 yards to the Atlanta 29, and Pickett and company made quick work of the Falcons again. He connected with Harris for a 16-yard gain on a screen, and Harris then gained 5 yards to put the ball at the Atlanta 8.
Warren then scored through a giant hole on the right side of the line to make it 14-0.
As it has throughout this preseason, the offense, defense and special teams all worked hand in hand.
"That's how it's supposed to work," said linebacker Alex Highsmith. "We're supposed to stop them so the offense can get good field position. The offense does what they do and goes down there and scores. Overall, it was a team win, all three phases did well."
Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin had seen enough of his first-team offense at that point and subbed in his second unit.
It fared nearly as well, as the defense got another three-and-out and Mitch Trubisky led a pair of scoring drives, the first two set up a 38-yard Chris Boswell field goal at the end of the first quarter, the second a 5-yard touchdown run by Anthony McFarland that made it 24-0.
At that point, the Steelers had outgained the Falcons 220-8 in total yards. They held a 253-55 advantage over Atlanta in total yards in the first half.
The Falcons finally put together a sustained drive to open the second half, but cornerback Joey Porter Jr. and linebacker Mark Robinson forced a Carlos Washington fumble at the Pittsburgh 5 that safety Kenny Robinson scooped up to end the Atlanta threat and preserve the shutout even though it came against Atlanta's backups.
"It doesn't matter," said Steelers cornerback Patrick Peterson, a 13-year veteran. "They're pros. That's their fault they didn't have their guys out there. This is my first preseason shutout and second of my career. I had one against the Giants in maybe 2020 or maybe (2019). That was pretty awesome. Anytime a defense can get a shutout, that's always rewarding because that's something you always shoot for, keeping guys out of the end zone, and that's what we were able to do."
Watt, Roberts, Toby Ndukwe, Quincy Roche and rookie Nick Herbig had sacks for the Steelers. Herbig's sack gave the fourth-round draft pick a team-best 3.5 in the preseason, while Roche's sack forced a fumble the Steelers recovered just before the two-minute warning.
McFarland paced the Steelers' rushing attack, which produced 175 yards, 10 carries for 55 yards, including a 31-yard run.
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Former WWE champion Bray Wyatt dies at age 36
WWE star Bray Wyatt, known for being one of the most creative minds in professional wrestling who pushed the boundaries with innovative characters, died Thursday at the age of 36, WWE chief content officer Paul "Triple H" Levesque announced on social media.
Wyatt, whose real name was Windham Rotunda, had been inactive over the past several months in WWE while dealing with an undisclosed health issue. He had been with WWE since 2009, save for just over a year in 2021 and 2022 when he was surprisingly released. Rotunda returned to WWE last September with much fanfare and a mysterious storyline, including cryptic vignettes, which helped boost television ratings.
"Just received a call from WWE Hall of Famer Mike Rotunda who informed us of the tragic news that our WWE family member for life Windham Rotunda -- also known as Bray Wyatt -- unexpectedly passed earlier today," Levesque wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. "Our thoughts are with his family and we ask that everyone respect their privacy at this time."
Rotunda came from a wrestling family. His father Mike gained fame in WWE as Irwin R. Schyster, as well as in other promotions under his real name or Michael Wallstreet. Rotunda's uncle Barry Windham was one of the most highly regarded wrestlers of the 1980s and early 1990s and a former member of the prestigious Four Horsemen stable. Rotunda's brother, Taylor, also wrestles for WWE and in the past used the moniker Bo Dallas.
Windham Rotunda was married to former WWE ring announcer JoJo Offerman. They had two children and Rotunda had two other children from a previous marriage. He was a two-time former WWE Universal champion and former WWE champion.
After starting in WWE's developmental program as the character Husky Harris, Rotunda found himself with Bray Wyatt, a maniacal swampland cult leader who recruited followers with a devilish charm. He and his Wyatt Family (Erick Rowan and the late Luke Harper, whose real name was Jonathan Huber) got popular in NXT, WWE's developmental brand, and came to the WWE main roster with much fanfare in 2014.
Rotunda was known at that point as one of the most gifted performers on the roster, especially when it came to telling a story on the microphone. He started using the catchphrase "follow the buzzards" and the song lyrics "he's got the whole world in his hands." During his entrances, with the arena shrouded in darkness before he appeared holding a lantern, fans would hold up their cellphone lights as his eerie music played.
In 2019, Rotunda reinvented himself as the supernatural character The Fiend, wearing a horror movie mask that was a terrifying facsimile of a clown. Bray Wyatt still existed in kid-friendly skits called Firefly Funhouse, but The Fiend, a dark alter ego, wrestled in his place. These were intricate, creative ideas that Rotunda for the most part came up with himself. The Fiend was polarizing as a character due to its near invulnerability in the ring, but it was an inventive leap and one of the most interesting things on WWE television at the time.
Rotunda returned to WWE last year after being released in 2021 as the former Bray Wyatt, a good-guy character who was apparently haunted by past demons like The Fiend and Uncle Howdy. The storyline was still developing in February when Rotunda disappeared from television due to health issues.
"Always had tremendous respect and love for him and the Rotunda family," Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson wrote Thursday on X. "Loved his presence, promos, in ring work and connection with the WWE universe. Very unique, cool and rare character, which is hard to create in our crazy world of pro wrestling."
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Vivek Ramaswamy’s brashness made waves in the Republican debate.
The youngest candidate on Wednesday night’s debate stage didn’t make any friends among his fellow Republican presidential hopefuls, questioning their morality, mocking their promises, and suggesting that he, by virtue of his inexperience in government, was ideally suited to solve a nation’s problems.
For Vivek Ramaswamy, it was familiar territory.
Long before he was explaining Perestroika to Mike Pence and congratulating Nikki Haley on a future career in the defense industry, Ramaswamy brought a similar brashness to biotech. In 2015, he was a 29-year-old hedge fund manager, fresh out of Yale Law School, lecturing the trillion-dollar pharmaceutical industry on how it was going about the business of drug development all wrong.
His company, called Roivant, would outfox the Pfizers and Mercks of the world by seeing the hidden value in medicines they were too bureaucratically blinkered to figure out for themselves, in the process creating “the highest return on investment endeavor ever taken up in the pharmaceutical industry,” he told Forbes at the time.
And much like at Wednesday’s debate, where Ramaswamy both met raucous cheers and occasionally had to shout over thundering boos, he proved to be polarizing. At his start, some of his biotech colleagues praised him as a visionary, an outsider shaking up an industry that had grown sclerotic at its highest ranks. Others saw a profiteer cashing in on what was then a historic boom for biotech, a speculator with a one-weird-trick business plan that was more likely to make him and his hedge fund friends rich than make any new medicines.
“I know I run the risk of looking like a fool two or three years from now,” one Massachusetts Institute of Technology business professor said in 2016, “but this sounds like some people are being bamboozled.”
A year later, the first test of Ramaswamy’s boundless confidence ended in embarrassment, when an Alzheimer’s disease treatment plucked from pharmaceutical obscurity failed in a closely watched clinical trial, erasing $2 billion in value and lending credence to the notion that Roivant’s purportedly revolutionary business model was too clever by half.
“I am sorry for the people who bought into the hype, and I’m sorry for Alzheimer’s patients and families who had hopes for this compound,” the biochemist Derek Lowe wrote on his blog after the failure. “But frankly, I see the entire effort as a misuse of funds — Alzheimer’s research would have been better off if the same amount of money had been applied almost anywhere else in the field.”
The “failure is challenging and humbling for me on a deeply personal level,” Ramaswamy wrote in a letter to employees. “While this is personally difficult for me, that may not be a bad thing for our business: I will be sure to harness the ‘sting’ I feel now to double down on my efforts to ensure that we succeed as a company, and that Roivant will be even stronger for having dealt with the experience of failure.”
Ramaswamy, by then biotech’s most famous millennial not named Martin Shkreli, had already built in contingency plans. Roivant had a pipeline of medicines, developed by an ever-increasing number of subsidiaries, and Ramaswamy’s fundraising prowess had secured its future with billions of dollars from investors including SoftBank and Viking Global.
In 2021, Ramaswamy ceded the CEO role and became executive chairman. Roivant had become less a brash disruptor and more of a normal drug company. By February 2023, when Ramaswamy left the company entirely to mount his presidential campaign, Roivant had six Food and Drug Administration-approved medicines and another dozen or so drugs in late-stage development.
Whether it can fulfill Ramaswamy’s foundational promise of becoming the single greatest return on investment in industry history remains to be seen, but it’s worth about $9 billion, and the Pfizers and Mercks it once sought to displace are reportedly interested in buying it.
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What could have caused the plane crash that reportedly killed Wagner warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin?
Wagner warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin, who led a failed uprising against the Kremlin exactly two months ago, was on board a plane that crashed on Wednesday, according to Russian officials – raising questions as to exactly how the disaster occurred.
The crash took place northwest of Moscow and killed all on board, said Russia’s aviation agency, including Prigozhin, chief of the mercenary group that gained prominence for its brutal methods worldwide and its battleground victories in the Ukraine war.
Here’s what we know so far.
What happened?
The plane was a private Embraer jet carrying seven passengers and three crew members, according to Russia’s emergency services ministry.
It had departed from Moscow and was en route to St. Petersburg when it crashed near the village of Kuzhenkino, in Russia’s western Tver region, Russian officials said. Flight data shows the plane reached an altitude of some 28,000 feet before it suddenly stopped transmitting tracking details.
The bodies of eight people have been found at the crash site, according to Russian state media. The official state news agency TASS reported the plane “burned up” on impact. It had been in the air for about half an hour.
Wagner chief was on plane that crashed in Russia, aviation authority says
The aircraft, which departed Moscow and was en route to St. Petersburg, stopped transmitting data shortly after 6 p.m. local time and crashed near the village of Kuzhenkino, Russian officals said.
Video published by Russian state media outlet RIA Novosti showed a plane plummeting with one wing missing. CNN is unable to confirm the authenticity of the video, but RIA Novosti claimed it was the moment that an Embraer jet fell from the sky over the Tver region.
It’s not yet clear what caused the plane to crash. Russian authorities said they are investigating and conducting search operations.
“It’s coming down quickly in a spin, and it’s trailing a lot of smoke. So, this is an aircraft that was on fire. And it looks like some structural pieces, aerodynamic surfaces, were missing,” veteran science and aerospace reporter Miles O’Brien told CNN after reviewing footage of the plane’s fall.
“An aircraft like this … they just don’t catastrophically drop out of the sky without something very unusual happening,” he added.
It could be caused by an explosion either inside or outside the aircraft, O’Brien added – like an explosive going off on board, or the aircraft being hit by a missile.
David Soucie, a former safety inspector with the US Federal Aviation Administration, echoed this possibility, saying the plane’s fall looked like it had only one wing left.
Was Prigozhin on board?
Prigozhin and several top Wagner lieutenants were named on a list of passengers shared by Russia’s aviation agency.
A Telegram channel linked to Wagner, which had previously carried the group’s propaganda videos, also issued a statement saying Prigozhin had been killed. CNN is unable to confirm the claim.
Other channels associated with Prigozhin and Wagner, including his official Telegram channel, have remained silent.
But there are other clues linking the warlord and the crash.
Another video released by RIA Novosti purports to show the crash site, where the last four digits of a registration number are visible on the plane engine debris: 2795. Prigozhin’s own plane, linked to his companies and the Wagner group, is registered as RA-02795.
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