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MANCHESTER: At 12 years old, Iris Iftikhar hopes to win a Gold medal when she takes on the best young fighters from the UK at the British National Taekwondo Championship on October 27 and 28.

Iftikhar, a British-Pakistani, has already bagged a silver and two bronze medal, each, in London, Barnsley, and Scotland championships in the (-44) kilogramme category.

“All my success is due to my mother; she has supported me all the way through,” she said, while talking to Geo News, “and it wouldn’t have been possible without her.”

“For other kids, my message is that work hard and you will achieve your goals. Taekwondo is not only good for physical health but it is good for self-defence and mental health.”

The 12-year-old has overwhelmed her family as well with her success at the Junior Taekwondo Championship at such a young age.

“We should focus on our children’s education as that is the way forward to prosper in this society but sports is where our Asian community is not very supportive to their children,” her mother said.

“As a parent, if we give this support to our children and, especially girls, they [would not] fear when they go out. I believe that’s the best thing we can do as human beings.”

On the other hand, Iftikhar also talked about her training and her goals.

“My coach, Arooj, and my school have been really supportive too; my aim is to win Gold at the national championship. I am working really hard and my past experience of championship matches will surely help me win this time around.

“I want to make the British-Pakistani community proud, especially girls. My dream is to represent either England or Pakistan in the Olympics,” she added.

The British Taekwondo National Championship will be held at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield later this month, on October 27 and 28.

Piracy poses an existential problem for broadcast rights holders but there are no signs that live sport is losing its glittering allure, according to Eleven Sports chief executive Marc Watson.

The company — a relative upstart in a cut-throat field — has got its hands on a number of high-profile events this year, adding the UK and Irish rights to the PGA Championship, La Liga and Serie A to a growing portfolio.

Founded by Leeds United owner Andrea Radrizzani in 2015, it holds the rights for a range of sports in 11 markets, but Singapore has proved a major headache.

“Piracy is everywhere… It is an existential problem for broadcasters,” Watson told AFP in an interview at the company’s London headquarters, though he said the extent of the problem varies from place to place.

“Piracy is rampant in Singapore. It is a very law-abiding nation but piracy is pretty much treated there as legitimate.

“The levels of piracy are hard to make the business work but it was not only us who suffered.”

Watson, who joined Eleven Sports in 2015 after a successful seven-year spell at BT Sport, during which the company ate into Sky’s portfolio by muscling in on the Premier League, said the solution is to offer a good-value product, not to fight through the courts.

“In the end the answer is about accessibility for consumers. It is about making good-value products available everywhere to consumers at a reasonable price where they want it, when they want it,” he said.

Watson believes the music industry has managed to combat illegal streaming of content by going down that route.

“Sports rights owners and federations themselves need to back that by supporting rights holders to make available content everywhere at all times and at reasonable prices,” he said.

Watson, a lawyer by profession, says his bold approach at both BT Sport and now Eleven Sports is born of necessity.
Disruptor

“I am definitely prepared to disrupt the status quo if I think there is good business in it,” he said. “I did it at BT because it really needed at that moment to grow its business.

“We are doing it here because of that. If you are a new entry you have to be prepared to be a disruptor as there is no other way of entering an existing established marketplace but to be a disruptor.”

Despite its status as a jewel in the broadcasting crown, the rampant inflation associated with Premier League rights has slowed.

In February, Sky and BT paid a combined £4.46 billion ($5.9 billion) for domestic rights to England’s top football tier for 2019-2022, significantly less than the £5.1 billion they forked out in the previous auction.

It is understood BT subsequently paid £90 million for a further package of games and Amazon made an intriguing foray into the market, though it is unclear how much they paid.

Watson expects the slowdown to be temporary, with appetites undiminished.

“Live sport is always going to be an essential commodity because it can drive consumer behaviour,” he said.

“Sports rights will rise and fall over time, most markets are flattening around the world but only because they rose so quickly.

“There is a modest correction taking place and will continue for some time and at some point in the coming years it will pick up.

“Something I don’t see changing is the sons of today will turn into the fathers of tomorrow and still want to sit on the sofa to watch their team play football and predominantly still live.”

Directed by Guy Ritchie, the movie stars Will Smith as the Genie, Mena Massoud as Aladdin and Naomi Scott as Princess Jasmine. Photo: Walt Disney

LONDON: The street rat is back — and this time in the flesh.

Disney has announced that it is planning to release a live-action adaptation next May of its animated classic Aladdin, the ancient tale of the penniless market boy who, with a little help from a certain genie in a lamp, marries the headstrong Princess Jasmine.

The remake, shot in London and on location in Jordan, is directed by Guy Ritchie and stars Will Smith as the Genie, Mena Massoud as Aladdin and Naomi Scott as Princess Jasmine, Disney said.

One early fan is Will Smith himself, who took to Instagram to share his enthusiasm for his latest role: “LEMME OUT!! Can’t wait for y’all to see Me BLUE! :-)”, he wrote.

Disney, which released a teaser trailer on YouTube to spread the word of its new production, said the film score includes new songs as well as re-recordings of the original songs written by Alan Menken and lyricists Howard Ashman and Tim Rice.

WINDSOR: Hollywood stars joined Queen Elizabeth and her family for Britain’s second major royal wedding this year, as the monarch’s granddaughter Princess Eugenie married wine merchant Jack Brooksbank.

Eugenie, 28, daughter of the queen’s third child, Prince Andrew and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, tied the knot with Brooksbank, 32, in a traditional ceremony at Windsor Castle’s 15th Century St George’s Chapel.

It was the same setting as the lavish wedding in May of Prince Harry and his American actress wife Meghan. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, as the couple are now known, were among Friday’s congregation.

Eugenie’s nuptials had much of the same pomp and pageantry as Harry’s, but the grandeur for a “minor royal” attracted some criticism.

The 92-year-old queen and her husband Philip, 97, who has retired from official engagements, were joined by other royals and celebrities including Hollywood stars Liv Tyler and Demi Moore, models Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell and singers Ellie Goulding and Robbie Williams.
Sarah Ferguson and Princess Beatrice, the bridesmaids and page boys, including Prince George and Princess Charlotte, wave as they leave after the royal wedding of Britain´s Princess Eugenie of York and her husband Jack Brooksbank at St George´s Chapel in Windsor Castle, Windsor, Britain October 12, 2018. Photo: Reuters

Female guests had to cling on to their hats as a blustery wind threatened their wedding outfits.

Eugenie’s dress, by Peter Pilotto and Christopher De Vos of London-based label Peter Pilotto, had a low back to reveal scars from surgery the princess underwent to correct scoliosis when she was 12.

“It’s a lovely way to honor the people who looked after me and a way of standing up for young people who also go through this,” she told ITV’s “This Morning” ahead of the wedding.

The couple showed clear signs on nerves but beamed happily during the hour-long service.

“This is meant to be a family wedding,” Eugenie’s father Andrew said earlier.

“There will be a few more people than most people have, there are a few more than Harry had, but that’s just the nature of Eugenie and Jack – they’ve got so many friends that they need a church of that size to fit them all in,” he told “This Morning” which broadcast the event live.

Several hundred singing and cheering well-wishers gathered outside in the shadow of the castle, far fewer than the tens of thousands that crammed into Windsor for Harry’s wedding.
The Great Gatsby

Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli performed during the service led by the Dean of Windsor David Conner.
Naomi Campbell (right) arrives ahead of the wedding of Princess Eugenie to Jack Brooksbank. Photo: Reuters

Eugenie’s elder sister Princess Beatrice, the maid of honor, read a passage from theThe Great Gatsby describing the smile of the title character, a rich man famed for throwing parties for the 1920s New York glitterati.

The bride had read the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel shortly after meeting Brooksbank in the Swiss ski resort of Verbier in 2010 and it had reminded her of her future husband.

“She decided she wanted eventually to let Jack know how much those words had brought him to mind,” Conner said.

Princess Charlotte, 3, daughter of Harry’s elder brother Prince William and his wife Kate, was a bridesmaid, and her brother, Prince George, 5, a page boy.

One noticeable absentee was Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, the wife of heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles, as she was carrying out an engagement in Scotland.
Royal Family at the wedding of Princess Eugenie married wine merchant Jack Brooksbank. Photo: AFP

After the service, the couple took a horse-drawn carriage tour of Windsor before a reception at the castle hosted by the queen.

Eugenie is a director at London’s Hauser & Wirth art gallery, and Brooksbank owns a wine wholesale business and is European brand manager for Casamigos Tequila, which was co-founded by US actor George Clooney.

Security around Windsor was tight, with airport-style checks and a heavy police presence. Eugenie does not carry out official royal duties and Republicans said it is wrong that the estimated 2 million pound ($2.6 million) security bill will be paid by taxpayers.

“Clearly, a line has been crossed today,” opposition Labour lawmaker Emma Dent Coad wrote in the Mirror newspaper, saying even usually pro-monarchist papers had criticized the public funding of the wedding “of a minor member of the royal family”.

“Whatever our thoughts about the long-term existence of the monarchy, we should know what it costs us,” she wrote. “I’m asking for a debate, not a revolution. And it’s well overdue.”

WASHINGTON: Melania Trump dismissed Friday the widespread talk about her husband President Donald Trump’s alleged affairs with a porn star and others, saying she has “more important things to think about”.

In an interview with ABC News, excerpts of which were broadcast early Friday, the US first lady did not deny her husband’s alleged history of philandering.

But Melania Trump insisted she doesn’t dwell on it.

“It is not a concern and focus of mine,” she said in the interview. “I’m a mother and a first lady, and I have much more important things to think about and to do.”

“I know people like to speculate and media like to speculate about our marriage,” she added.

“It’s not always pleasant, of course, but I know what is right and what is wrong and what is true and not true.”

Asked whether she loved her husband, she answered: “Yes, we are fine. It’s what media speculate, and it’s gossip. It’s not always correct stuff.”
‘Most bullied person’

ABC conducted the rare interview of the Slovenia-born 48-year-old former model and the president’s third wife while she was in Africa last week.

After living in the White House for nearly two years in the shadow of one of the most controversial and scandal-tarred presidents of modern times, she appeared confident but also controlled, keeping her answers to difficult questions short.

The interview came just over three weeks before the midterm congressional elections, in which Trump’s record is expected to play a big part in how voters cast their ballots.

Sitting in stretch jodhpurs with a safari pith helmet at her side, Trump gave a wry smile when asked about comments about her marriage from the president’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani.

Giuliani had said in June that the first believes her husband’s denials about an affair a decade ago with stripper and porn movie star Stormy Daniels, and “knows it’s untrue”.

“I never talked to Mr Giuliani,” the first lady said.

ABC said the full interview will air later Friday, with Trump discussing her trip to Africa, her campaign against bullying and the controversies swirling around the president.

She gave a surprise answer to why she chose to fight against cyber-bullying with her “Be Best” campaign.

“I could say I’m the most bullied person in the world,” she said, or “one of them, if you really see what people are saying about me.”
First lady tribulations

Trump has predecessor who as American first ladies suffered gossip about their husbands’ alleged affairs.

Hillary Clinton endured husband Bill Clinton being impeached in 1998 for lying about his extramarital sex.

John F. Kennedy, president from 1961-63, was another serial cheater on wife Jackie, though his affairs were kept out of the news by a compliant media.

But talk of President Trump’s alleged history of sleeping with and then paying hush money to models and porn stars has been non-stop since he took office.

Mysterious and impenetrable, Melania is constantly scrutinised for her reaction: Is she holding his hand? Why aren’t they together much? Will she move back to New York with their son Barron?

She scoffed at such talk in the ABC interview. “I am enjoying it. I really love to live in Washington and the White House,” she said.

Trump has not given such a long interview since arriving in the US capital.

Katherine Jellison, an Ohio University historian, noted the timing of the interview coincides with intense scrutiny of men amid the #Metoo movement.

“The Trump administration has been under a lot of scrutiny on gender issues,” Jellison told AFP.

“So maybe she thought the timing was right to assert herself as a strong, independent woman, at a time when there was much negative press about the treatment of women in Trump’s America.”

Like past first ladies, Melania also faces criticism of her fashion choices, which lean toward well-cut, refined but not flashy clothes from Ralph Lauren and French-American designer Herve Pierre.

She took heavy flack in June when she wore a $39 Zara jacket that had “I really don’t care, do u?” written on the back, as she embarked on a trip to the Mexican border to see immigrant children who had been separated from their parents under her husband’s much-criticised policy.

It was unclear who was the target of that message.

Donning a pith helmet during her Nairobi stop last week, and then an Indiana Jones-style Panama hat while in Egypt, Melania Trump also drew fashion maven reprimands as “insensitive” to the continent’s colonial history.

Reporters should “talk about my trip and not what I wear,” she scolded during the journey.

ISLAMABAD: Over 9.9 million ballot papers have been printed for by-polls scheduled for October 14.

More than a 100 candidates, including some political bigwigs, are contesting for 35 national and provincial assembly seats in the by-polls.

Seats up for grabs include 11 from National Assembly, 11 from Punjab Assembly, nine from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and two each from Sindh and Balochistan.

Over five million registered voters, about 2.3 million women and over 2.7 million men, will exercise their right to vote.

The campaign time for candidates’ ended Friday midnight as the election campaigning picked up pace this week.

According to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), ballot papers have been handed over to the presiding officers. They were distributed under the supervision of the Pakistan Army.

Further, the ECP said, 641 candidates submitted papers for the by-polls. However, only 372 candidates will be contesting in the by-polls now.

In Lahore’s NA-131 constituency, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) candidate Khawaja Saad Rafique will face Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) Humayun Akhtar.

Former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi is PML-N’s candidate from NA-124. His opponent in the constituency is PTI’s Ghulam Mohiuddin.

For Karachi’s NA-243 constituency, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) is expected to give tough competition to PTI.

Overseas Pakistanis will vote for the first time in the by-polls.

On Thursday, the ECP constituted 27 monitoring teams to monitor the by-polls.

The teams will examine the distribution of polling equipment and training of the polling staff. On the day of the by-polls, the teams will also monitor security arrangements, the result transmission system (RTS) and votes of the overseas Pakistanis in addition to the process of tabulation and compilation of results.

FRANKFURT AM MAIN: Frustrated with children’s stories of passive princesses and damsels in distress, two Italian women crowdfunded their way into publishing history with a record-breaking book of inspirational tales for girls.

And their revolution has only just begun.

The first volume of Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls by Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo has become a global sensation, selling more than three million copies with translations in 46 languages.

The 2016 book, telling the life stories of 100 extraordinary women — ranging from US author Maya Angelou to Mexican painter Frida Kahlo and Polish-born scientist Marie Curie — was born out of necessity, Cavallo said.

“Most books don’t feature girls in roles where they take charge of their destiny. In most children’s books, when there are female characters, they don’t speak,” Cavallo told AFP at the Frankfurt book fair.

“We want girls to grow up with the certainty that they can choose the life they want. And never apologise for being too assertive, too ambitious or too brave.”

Co-authors Cavallo and Favilli, who live in the United States, were determined to change the gender imbalance on the bookshelf — despite having no publishing experience.

“That’s our rebel spirit,” the 35-year-old laughed.
Over $1.5 million

The duo had already founded a children’s media company in California called Timbuktu Labs, which created the first iPad magazine for children.

But to bring out a real-world book, they turned to crowdfunding, setting their goal at a modest $40,000 (34,000 euros).

They raised over $600,000, making it the highest funded book ever on Kickstarter.

Their second volume of bedtime stories last year smashed that record, raising over $900,000.

The huge appetite for the books blindsided the traditional publishing industry, spawning a raft of copycat versions as publishers scramble to catch up with demand for empowering stories about women.
‘Women’s moment’

At the opening of this week’s Frankfurt book fair, the world’s largest publishing event, director Juergen Boos cited the Rebel Girls chronicles as an example of how publishing was changing.

“We are seeing new ways that literature is being created, bought and received,” Boos said, pointing out that it took an online community “to reveal there weren’t nearly enough books with female heroines”.

The second Rebel Girls book, which has sold over 600,000 copies so far, again offers one-page bios of 100 strong women, written in a fairytale-style and paired with a colourful, illustrated portrait.

Beyonce and Oprah are among those featured.

Cavallo said it was “no coincidence” the books were so successful at a time when women’s voices are growing louder and the #MeToo movement has taken the world by storm, sparking a global debate about sexual harassment.

“We are experiencing a moment in history when women are determined to see women’s rights at the front and centre of the political agenda,” Cavallo said.

“It’s probably the best time in history to be a rebel girl. But there is still so much to do.”

The third Rebel Girls book is already on the way, an interactive “journal to starting a revolution”.

It reached its crowdfunding target in just eight hours and will hit bookstores in early December — although backers on Kickstarter will get their copies earlier.

The authors have also branched out into podcasts, using famous voices to read out extended versions of some of the biographies.

Billionaire philanthropist Melinda Gates is one of the narrators, as is New York Times journalist Jodi Kantor who co-wrote the expose that first revealed the sexual misconduct allegations against Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein.

But what Cavallo and Favilli insist they won’t do is expand their brand into rebel books for boys.

“We feel it’s very important for boys to read books where they are not in the title. Girls have done that their whole lives,” Cavallo said.

“And a lot of boys tell us they love our stories. Many parents still feel they can’t give boys a book about girls. But that’s changing too.”

Real Madrid said Thursday it had filed a lawsuit against a Portuguese newspaper that wrote the Spanish giants pushed Cristiano Ronaldo to hush up an alleged rape case.

Real said it had taken legal action against Correio da Manha after the paper reported Wednesday that “Real Madrid pressured him to sign” a non-disclosure accord and pay compensation to his accuser, Kathryn Mayorga.

“Real Madrid has absolutely no knowledge of any of the information that the newspaper published with regard to the player Cristiano Ronaldo, and therefore the club could not have taken action on a matter of which it had no knowledge,” the club said in a statement.

Ronaldo, 33, who left Real Madrid over the summer to join Italian champions Juventus in deal worth 100 million euros, has been in turmoil since a case involving rape allegations against him, dating back to 2009, was reopened by Las Vegas police last week.

The case was originally closed after Ronaldo signed a confidentiality agreement in 2010 with Mayorga, a former model now aged 34, who received a pay-off in return for her silence.

Mayorga alleged that she had been raped on June 13, 2009, just days after Ronaldo had signed a contract with Real Madrid in a mega transfer deal from Manchester United.

The Portuguese newspaper reported that Real, wishing to avoid scandal, pressed Ronaldo to pay compensation to Mayorga to hush up the affair.

Ronaldo’s lawyer insisted Wednesday the player did not rape the woman in a Las Vegas hotel and that their sexual encounter was “completely consensual.”

“Once again, for the avoidance of doubt, Cristiano Ronaldo’s position has always been, and continues to be, that what happened in 2009 in Las Vegas was completely consensual,” lawyer Peter Christiansen said in a statement.

Ronaldo freely admits signing the non-disclosure accord but his lawyer insisted he simply wished to put an end to the allegations.

Christiansen also said that documents reproduced by media outlets in recent days purportedly quoting the player and including details of the non-disclosure accord involving a payment of 375,000 dollars to his accuser were false.

He said “documents that allegedly contain statements by Cristiano Ronaldo and were reproduced in the media are pure invention.”

Der Spiegel, the German magazine which published the story released a statement which said, in part: “Our story is carefully researched. We have hundreds of documents from different sources that substantiate our reporting.”

Australian bowler John Hastings has revealed he risks long-term damage or even death if he continues to bowl due to a health issue causing persistent bleeding on his lungs.

Speaking to Breakfast Club on Friday, Hastings said, he has undergone an extensive amount of testing but he has been left searching for answers, placing his cricket career in jeopardy.

“It’s something that, over probably the last three or four months, has been a really difficult period for me. It’s basically every time I’ve been trying to gear up and get ready to bowl, I’ve been coughing up blood.”

The 32-year-old bowler added, “What’s happened is basically I won’t be able to bowl this year or probably moving forward unless this sort of situation gets sorted out.”

“It’s just something that they can’t say, ‘look, you’re not going to have a fatal bleed on the field’ or it’s not going to cause long-term damage.”

“It’s pretty shattering. I’ve come to terms with it now, but over the last four or five months it’s been a very, very tough period,” he added.

Hastings, who was due to play for the Sydney Sixers in the Big Bash League this season said, “I’ve played this game my whole life and I wanted to keep playing it. I wanted to play tournaments all around the world. That’s one of the reasons I retired early from one-day and four-day cricket.”

“To see it maybe slipping away, it’s pretty tough to take. At this stage, unless something miraculous happens, I won’t be able to bowl,” the Australian bowler added.

ISLAMABAD: As many as 450 Pakistani nationals have acknowledged holding properties in Dubai in response to a notice sent by a Supreme Court constituted committee on Thursday, sources informed Geo News.

The committee sent notices to 893 property holders, 443 people have not yet responded to the notices. The property owners’ details have been sent to the Federal Board of Revenue for further probe.

The state will move to take action with the assistance of United Arab Emirates government to confiscate the property in case it doesn’t get the response from the stated owners.

The Supreme Court constituted a commission to ascertain the means and mode of transactions of multi-billion dollars properties abroad.

The FBR will be responsible to take action if the owners are unable to prove their means of income, tax returns and mode of transactions.