David Shadrach

Ballon d'Or 2017: Cristiano Ronaldo beats Lionel Messi to win fifth award 7 Dec Cristiano Ronaldo (pictured) and Lionel Messi have both won the award five times Real Madrid forward Cristiano Ronaldo beat Barcelona's Lionel Messi to win the Ballon d'Or award for the fifth time - and the second year in a row. Victory took the 32-year-old Portugal international level with 30-year-old Argentine Messi, who won the most recent of his five awards in 2015. Messi's ex-Barcelona team-mate Neymar, now at Paris St-Germain, was third. Last season, Ronaldo helped Real Madrid win the Champions League and their first La Liga title since 2012. Ronaldo added the 2017 Ballon d'Or to those he won in 2008, 2013, 2014 and 2016, and Messi is the only other recipient of the award since 2009. "This is something I look forward to every year," he said, after receiving the award on the Eiffel Tower in Paris. "Thanks to my Real Madrid team-mates. And I want to thank the rest of t...

Trump on Jerusalem: a quintessential Netanyahu OPINION / ISRAEL OPINION Jerusalem will never be the capital of a settler colony by Hamid Dabashi Marwan Bishara Marwan Bishara is the senior political Jerusalem Israel Donald Trump Politics Middle East US President Donald Trump paid his first official visit to Jerusalem in May, 2017 [Reuters] Arabs and Muslims hoping to hear directly from Donald Trump on his new policy on Jerusalem on Wednesday must have been shocked to witness the United States president deliver an Israeli speech instead. The tone was Trump, but the words and spin were all Benjamin Netanyahu . Trump's claim that officially recognising Jerusalem as the capital of Israel was merely "recognising reality" is pure Israeli reasoning - central to the occupation's strategy of creating facts on the ground. Palestinians know this. Arabs know this. The international community knows it, too. They all know that if you give an inch of Jerusalem to Israel, it will ta...

Oxford student Lavinia Woodward fights suspended sentence An "extraordinary" University of Oxford student who avoided jail for stabbing her boyfriend is trying to appeal against her suspended sentence. Lavinia Woodward, 24, pleaded guilty to unlawful wounding at Christ Church college after drinking heavily. Judge Ian Pringle QC suspended her 10-month jail sentence and at an earlier hearing said he believed immediate custody would damage her career. She has now applied for permission to take her case to the Court of Appeal. The case prompted a debate about inequality in the criminal justice system after Judge Pringle deferred her sentence to give her a chance to prove she was no longer addicted to drugs and alcohol. He had described Woodward as "an extraordinarily able young lady" and said sending her to prison would damage her hopes of becoming a surgeon. In his sentencing remarks he said there were "many mitigating features" of the case, and she had shown...

Palestinians injured in protests over US Jerusalem move NEWS / JERUSALEM Battle for Jerusalem Jerusalem Palestine Israel Politics Palestinian protesters run from tear gas fired by Israeli troops near Ramallah [Mohamad Torokman/Reuters] Thousands of Palestinians have taken to the streets of Jerusalem , the West Bank and the Gaza Strip to protest against the US decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel , a contentious move that has inflamed tensions in Palestine and across the region. In the occupied West Bank , Palestinians clashed with Israeli forces in a handful of cities throughout Thursday. At least 49 Palestinians were injured in the protests, and 16 were sent to hospital, according to local health authorities in the West Bank. Hoda Abdel-Hamid, reporting from Ramallah, said the clashes were dissipating after "several hours of quite vigorous confrontation between the youth and the Israeli army". Palestinian protesters gathered at the central Al Manara squa...

Australian MPs burst into song after voting for same-sex marriage 09:24, UK, Thursday 07 December 2017 Terms & Conditions Privacy & Cookies Notice Accessibility Information Contact Us © 2017 Sky UK We use cookies to give you the best experience. If you do nothing we'll assume that it's ok. Menu Liberal MP Warren Entsch lifts up Labour MP Linda Burney as they celebrate the passing of the bill By Sunita Patel-Carstairs, News Reporter Australian MPs have endorsed the nation's vote to allow same-sex couples to marry - before bursting into song in parliament. Only four MPs did not back the historic reform, which comes after the country voted overwhelmingly in favour of legalising gay weddings last month. Onlookers in the packed public gallery hugged, cheered loudly and started applauding and waving their rainbow flags while singing I Am Australian. "We are one, but we are many," they belted out in unison. "And from all the lands on earth we come. "We...

How Israel-Palestine peace process rendered irrelevant NEWS / PALESTINE Israel approval vs anger in Palestine over Jerusalem recognition Jerusalem Palestine Politics Middle East Israel SIGN UP Palestinians protest following US President Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital [Ammar Awad/Reuters] The city of Jerusalem , with its historical, religious and political significance, has always been a prominent symbol for the Palestinian cause, or what is left of its tattered remains. With a stroke of a pen, the United States, which has undertaken the role of peace broker between the Israelis and Palestinians for over two decades, has become the first country in the world to recognise the whole Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. But to the majority of Palestinians, who say their interests were never pursued by their leaders, the unprecedented move came as no surprise , and the peace process will have little meaning. 'Nothing will happen' Abdelsattar Qassem, a pr...

Disruption warning as Storm Caroline approaches Warnings of disruption to road, rail and ferry transport in Scotland have been issued as Storm Caroline strikes and wintry weather is due in its wake. The Met Office has amber "be prepared" and yellow "be aware" warnings in place for Thursday's storm for Scotland. Yellow warnings have been issued for snow, ice and wind on Friday and Saturday for large parts of the UK. Scotland's transport minister, Humza Yousaf, said the country faced "challenging conditions". All schools on Lewis, Harris, Uist and Barra in the Western Isles will be closed to pupils on Thursday as a precaution. Electricity company SSE Networks said that about 2,000 of its customers in the Western Isles had been affected by power cuts. In the Highland Council area, more than 50 schools, which include nurseries, primary and secondary schools, have been closed because of the weather. The Scottish Environment Protection Agency has 10 floo...

Social media reaction: Arabs helpless and hopeless NEWS / SOCIAL MEDIA Jerusalem Social media SIGN UP A Palestinian refugee family near Amman in Jordan watches a televised broadcast of Trump delivering his address [Muhammad Hamed/ Reuters] After US President Donald Trump ignored warnings from the international community and formally recognised Jerusalem as the Israeli capital, some Twitter users focused on how Arabs contributed in the loss of Jerusalem. The status of the holy city is an extremely sensitive aspect of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. While Israel claims the whole city its capital - following the occupation of East Jerusalem in the 1967 war with Syria, Egypt and Jordan - Palestinians have long seen East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state. Turkish protesters gather outside the US Consulate in Istanbul after Trump's announcement [Chris McGrath/Getty Images] "Jerusalem was lost from the day Sadaat visited it and the day you all danced for Oslo," wr...

Erdogan: US Jerusalem move puts region in ring of fire NEWS / PALESTINE Jerusalem Palestine Middle East SIGN UP Erdogan said the US has disregarded a 1980 United Nations resolution regarding the status of the city [Umit Bektas/Reuters] Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan has criticised US President Donald Trump's decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital, saying it would throw this region into "a ring of fire". "Taking such a step throws particularly this region into a ring of fire. What would you like to do [with this step], Mr Trump? What kind of stance is it?" Erdogan said on Thursday, at Esenboga Airport in the capital Ankara, before leaving for a visit to Greece. Breaking with decades of US policy, Trump on Wednesday announced the transfer of American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, formally recognising the contested city as the capital of Israel despite widespread international opposition. "I have determined that it is time to offici...

Hamas: US decision on Jerusalem is a war declaration NEWS / PALESTINE Battle for Jerusalem Palestine Jerusalem Israel Politics SIGN UP Haniya called on all Palestinian factions to unite quickly [Al Jazeera] Hamas leader Ismail Haniya has said the US decision on recognising Jerusalem as the capital of Israel is a "war declaration against Palestinians", and called for a new "Intifada", or uprising. Haniya said in a speech in Gaza City on Thursday that US President Donald Trump's recognition "killed" the Israeli- Palestinian peace process. "This decision has killed the peace process, has killed the Oslo [accord], has killed the settlement process," he said. "The US decision is an aggression, a declaration of war on us, on the best Muslim and Christian shrines in the heart of Palestine, Jerusalem." "We should work on launching an intifada in the face of the Zionist enemy," Haniya said. He stressed the fact that the Palestinia...

Paulo Fonseca: Shakhtar Donetsk boss celebrates win by wearing Zorro mask 6 Dec Paulo Fonseca has been manager of Shakhtar Donetsk since 2016 Shakhtar Donetsk boss Paulo Fonseca celebrated his team's 2-1 Champions League victory over Manchester City by wearing a Zorro mask. The Ukrainian side inflicted City's first defeat in 29 matches to secure their place in the last 16 as Group F runners-up behind Pep Guardiola's side. Fonseca had said he would dress up as Zorro - a fictional masked vigilante - if Shakhtar advanced. The Portuguese wore a mask, hat and cape at his post-match news conference. "This is the most joyful press conference of my career," Fonseca, who was recently linked with the Everton job, said. "I feel great joy. I think not only Shakhtar's supporters but all Ukrainians have to be proud of our team." Listen to BBC Radio 5 live's Football Daily podcast: 'The Premier League is back'

'Dead jihadists can't harm UK', Gavin Williamson says No British citizen who has fought for so-called Islamic State should be allowed back into the country, the defence secretary has said. In an interview with the Daily Mail , Gavin Williamson said: "Quite simply, my view is a dead terrorist can't cause any harm to Britain." He said everything should be done "to destroy and eliminate that threat". At least 800 Britons have gone to Syria and Iraq to fight for IS and 130 of those have been killed in conflict. Mr Williamson, who took over as defence secretary last month, told the newspaper: "I do not believe that any terrorist, whether they come from this country or any other, should ever be allowed back into this country." British IS fighters must be killed, minister says British jihadist Jones 'killed by drone' Who are Britain’s jihadists? British fighters who had fled to other countries would also be found and stopped from returning...