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DAILY NEWS IN ENGLISH

Saudi coalition uses German arms in Yemen German arms and technology play a far greater role in the Yemen war than previously known. According to the findings of the investigative research project #GermanArms, the armies of the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia are using German weapons and technology in Yemen for naval, ground and air operations. #GermanArms is a collaborative effort of Deutsche Welle and its German media partners ʼreport Münchenʼ of public broadcaster Bayerischer Rundfunk and Stern magazine, together with the Dutch independent media organisation Lighthouse Reports and the investigative network Bellingcat. Representatives of the German government have repeatedly denied having any knowledge of the use of Germanmade arms in Yemen.

Pakistan vows retaliation after Indiaʼs airstrikes on alleged militant camps India said on Tuesday that its air force had carried out strikes inside Pakistan, targeting camps run by theJaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) terrorist group. New Delhi said it had managed to kill a "very large number" of fighters in the operation.

"A very large number of Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorists, trainers, commanders and groups of jihadis who were being trained for fidayeen [suicide] action" have been killed, Indiaʼs Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale said at a press conference. Security officials in India told DW on condition of anonymity that the operation involved Mirage 2000 aircraft, which flew across the Line of Control (LoC) and dropped 1,000 kilograms of bombs. The Mirage 2000 is a French-made singleengine fourth-generation fighter jet, manufactured by Dassault Aviation.

49/2019 • 27 FEBRUARY, 2019

Soros boosts anti-PiS media ahead of crucial Polish polls With elections looming, the anti-PiS coalition is preparing to fight

As Polandʼs media become increasingly politicized, publisher Agora and a Soros-backed fund have teamed up to buy the second-largest radio station.

Agora, which owns Polandʼs largest circulation daily, Gazeta Wyborcza, recently signed a deal to buy 40 percent of Eurozet for 130.8 million zlotys ($34 million, €30 million) from Prague-based Czech Media Invest (CMI), coowned byCzech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky. Eurozet owns Radio Zet, Polandʼs second-largest radio station with 13 percent of the market.

SFS Ventures is a vehicle that includes a fund backed byUSHungarian billionaire philanthropist George Soros. Itʼs is buying the remaining 60 percent and is a Czech joint venture between Sourcefabric, founded in Prague in 2010 to support independent journalism worldwide, and Media Development Investment Fund (MDIF), a fund for independent media that received seed financing from SorosʼOpen Society Institute. MDIF said the purchase would not mean any changes in Radio Zet, which has remained independent of the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party as it has sought to ‘repolonizeʼ public media and financially undermine independent commercial media

since coming to power in late 2015. Pro-government publishers, some backed by loan guarantees from state-owned banks, had wanted to buy Eurozet, including Fratria, the owner of the wpolityce.pl website. PiS has called the sale a threat to the pluralism of Polish media. "PiS along with Chairman Jaroslaw Kaczynski at its head, believe that the state should do everything in its power so that stock speculators will not increase their influence over the media market," Beata Mazurek, spokeswoman for PiS, said on Twitter in January.

Krystyna Pawlowicz, a PiS MP, wrote in an op-ed for Radio Maryja, the idea of an apolitical media is a "harmful idealized myth" that makes it "harder to govern." Kaczynski does not hide his distate for Gazeta Wyborcza and the feeling is mutual, insiders at the paper say. Kaczynski said in 2018 that the newspaper disseminates "liberalism, anti-traditionalism, anti-Catholicism" and was "against the very notion of the nation." He accused it of using the "pedagogics of shame."

Top Vatican cleric Cardinal George Pell convicted of child sex crimes Cardinal George Pell, the Vaticanʼs economy minister and a top adviser to Pope Francis, has been convicted of molesting two choirboys, an Australian court said Tuesday. An Australian court found Pell guilty on one count of sexual abuse and four counts of indecent assault of two 13-year-old boys at St. Patrickʼs Cathedral in Melbourne in the 1990s. Read more: Sex abuse scandals in the Catholic Church The 12-member jury delivered the unanimous verdict on December 11, but the presiding judge had issued a gag order that prevented reporting since the trial began last May. The suppression order was lifted on Tuesday after prosecutors decided not to proceed with a second trial related to separate sex abuse allegations against the cardinal.

Venezuela crisis: US military intervention becoming more likely The brutal refusal by Venezuelan military forces loyal to the countryʼs besieged President Nicolas Maduro to allow foreign aid into the country over the weekend has increased the chance of Washington getting involved militarily in the conflict between Maduro and Juan Guaido. In the aftermath of the deadly clashes, Guaido, who has been recognized by the US as well by many European and Latin American countries as Venezuelaʼs interim president, urged the global community to consider "all measures to free" the country. On

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49/2019 • 27 February, 2019

ICC acquits former Ivory Coast leader Laurent Gbagbo Judges at The Hague-based court delivered the eagerly awaited decision on Tuesday morning, clearing 73-year-old Gbagbo of all charges of crimes against humanity over post-electoral violence.

Head judge Cuno Tarfusser said the court granted "the defence motions for acquittal for all charges for Mr Laurent Gbagbo," as well as his co-defendant, Charles Ble Goude. Tarfusser said that a majority of the three-judge bench found that "the prosecutor has failed to satisfy the burden of proof" against both men. Lawyers for the pair had asked judges to acquit them both over a lack of evidence at the end of the prosecution case in their trial that began just under three years ago. The 73year-old Gbagbo was the first former head of state to go on trial at the court in The Netherlands.

His case was seen as a milestone in efforts to bring high-ranking leaders accused of atrocities to justice.

US and Turkish presidents discuss safe zone in northern Syria Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his US counterpart, Donald Trump, took to the telephone to discuss the situation in northern Syria on Monday.

"The president expressed the desire to work together to address Turkeyʼs security concerns in northeast Syria while stressing the importance to the United States that Turkey does not mistreat the Kurds and other Syrian Democratic Forces with whom we have fought to defeat ISIS," White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said in a statement, referring to the "Islamic State" (IS) extremist group. The Turkish presidency said the two men discussed the creation of a safe zone in northern Syria cleared of militia groups.

It did not provide any other details.

Thedisagreement between the NATO alliesis the latest consequence of Trumpʼs December 19 decision to withdraw US military personnel from Syria.

This could leave the Kurdish militia under threat should Turkey start a new offensive. Over the weekend, Trump had taken to Twitter to threaten he would"devastate" the Turkish economyif Ankara sent its forces to attack the Kurds in northern Syria.

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Supermarket Aldi recalls sausages in Listeria scare near Hanover Aldi has also recently come under fire

The grocery chain has said that sausages being sold at stores near Hanover may contain the bacteria Listeria. Aldi has also recently come under fire for its business practices regarding produce from South America.

German supermarket giant Aldi said on Tuesday that it had discovered that some of its meat products being sold near the city of Hanover were infected with the dangerous Listeria bacteria. The firm is warning its customers not to eat any of the 100 gram packages of sausages from the Wiltman brand. Earlier, Wiltman had said that only packages stamped with the expiration

Berlin AG wants to get rid of fines for fare evaders Authorities in Berlin view fare dodging as a criminal offense punishable by a €60 ($68.6) fine. Local police filed 12,000 complaints over the issue in 2017 and more than 300 people are imprisoned every year for not being able or willing to pay the fines. The left-leaning mayorand other top officials have recently called for less drastic regulations, with some proposing to downgrade fare dodging to a mere administrative offense. Now, the Berlin attorney general wants to go a step further and "completely abolish" the crime of fare dodging. "We shouldnʼt waste resources for criminal

The year Trumpian disruption rocked German politics The image that sticks most in my mind from the uniquely disruptive political year that was 2018 is of Angela Merkel with Horst Seehofer on the balcony of the Chancellery building. The chancellor, a glass of white wine in her hand, has turned her back and is stalking away from her rebellious interior minister, as though he were a dog sheʼd just caught going through the kitchen garbage can.

The wind has ruffled her normally perfectly styled hair. She looks unhappy, tired, old. To be fair, Merkel had every reason to be a tad disheveled, having spent many a late night negotiating with Seehofer and her other coalition partners over one-stop holding centers for migrants, so-called "Anker" centers, versus transit centers —an issue that threatened for a few summer weeks to bring down her government and was immediately forgottenwhen a suitably face-saving compromise was found.

Nonetheless, this press photo was a disconcerting sight for anyone who has ever come close to the chancellor in person. Iʼve witnessed her testify for five straight hours in front of a parliamentary investigative committee only to decline with a confident smile when asked if sheʼd like a break. For Merkel stress was always like water off a duckʼs back.Until 2018.

date of March 8 were thought to be contaminated. "This germ can cause flu-like symptoms and, in certain individuals, very serious disease," Wiltman said on its website, apologizing "for the inconvenience." Aldi has cautioned that there is a particularly high risk for pregnant women, the elderly, small children, and people with an already weakened immune system. offenses where criminality is highly questionable," Attorney General Margarete Koppers told Berliner Morgen‐ post. Koppers is one of the most senior judiciary officials in Berlin, a 3.6million-strong city which is also considered one of Germanyʼs 16 federal states. Talking to the local daily, Koppers said downgrading the offense would pose "no relief for the judiciary."

Belgium vows to amplify EU voice on UN Security Council Belgiumʼs foreign minister says his country will use its temporary UN Security Council seat to make the EU

more influential on the global stage.

Belgium and Germany are to scheduled to take up their seats on January 1. Belgium will use its two-year seat on the United Nations Security Council to bolster the European Unionʼs influence within the global body, Belgiumʼs foreign minister has said. Didier Reynders told Germanyʼs Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung news outlet that Belgium aims to help harmonize each EU member stateʼs diplomacy so that they "send the same message with different voices." Belgium will take up its temporary seat on the Security Council,the UNʼs highest decisionmaking body, along with Germany on January 1. "We have an important role to play in supporting multilateralism," Reynders said. "There is no better place for it than in the United Nations Security Council."

49/2019 • 27 February, 2019

AfD wins case against spy agency Germanyʼs domestic spy agency has been blocked from classifying Germanyʼs far-right AfD party as a "test case." The party had complained the label was defamatory.

Germanyʼs far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party won a legal victory against the countryʼs domestic spy agency on Tuesday. The party complained that the Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) had defamed the party by publicly treating it as a "test case." A test case classification means the BfV can use open-source material to investigate whether the party poses a threat to the constitutional order. It does not allow the BfV to use undercover agents or other intelligence methods

German traindelay scarf sells for thousands at auction A scarf knitted by a German woman to represent how long she was delayed on trains run by German rail company Deutsche Bahn sold for €7,550 ($8,660) on eBay on Monday.

There were 134 bids from 45 bidders for the 1.5-meter (5 foot) scarf, which was knitted over the course of 2018 and features stripes in different colors, to represent different-length delays. Read more: Deutsche Bahn flaws prompt calls for basic railway reform Journalist Sara Weber, the scarf makerʼs daughter, said her mother was a commuter in the Munich area and had knitted two rows per day: Gray for under five minutes, pink for 5-30 minutes, and red for delays of more than 30 minutes or when both of her trains were running late. Weber posted a photo of the scarf on Twitter and the response was so enthusiastic that she and her mother decided to auction it and give the proceeds to the charity Bahnhofsmission, which assists people in need at railway stations across Germany.

On Monday, Weber tweeted that the scarf had been sold for €7,550.

to collect information. Authorities can declare a party a test case if they detect the first signs of extremism.

However, theAdministrative Court of Cologne ruledthat the BfV had failed to justify the designation, relying only on "fragments of suspicion." Read more: Germanyʼs domestic spy agency and its history of scandals The BfV announced its classification in a public press conference in January.

The court found that the term "test case" had a "negative effect" on the public.

Unseasonally warm weather hits Europe, breaks UK records

Unseasonably warm weather has brought an early spring to Europe, with temperatures in some regions forecast to stay in the late teens in coming days. The mercury hit 20.6 degrees Celsius (69 degrees Fahrenheit) in Wales on Monday, smashing the previous February record by almost one degree. It was the first time a temperature of above 20 degrees had been recorded during the winter months in the UK, according

to the British Met Office. In western Germany, temperatures reached 19 degrees in Cologne and 18 degrees in Kraichgau and Neckartal although that is well below the record 23 degrees recorded back in 1900. Weather bureau DWD said temperatures would likely remain high over the next few days. “In the coming days, it will probably get even warmer and could reach the 20 degree mark again,” it wrote.

German utilities call for more water infrastructure investment Karsten Specht, vice-president of Germanyʼs VKU local utilities association, said Tuesday that costly investments were needed to develop instrastructure for water supplies and treatment. The VKUʼs 1,460 members — largely consortia owned by local authorities — were already investing €6 billion ($7 billion) annually, Specht said. He added that while people took it for granted that taps brought water, they forgot that elaborate infrastructures were needed to get it there — and also for subsequent waste-water disposal. Politicians, must recognize this "long-term task."

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49/2019 • 27 February, 2019

German firms warned about Chinese ʼcloud hopperʼ hackers Germanyʼs BSI information security agency, tipped off by America, has identified small weak-link service firms as the gateways used to hack German industry, Germanyʼs Süddeutsche Zeitung daily newspaper said on Wednesday. Referring to US President Donald Trumpʼs trade row with China and citing the "well-informed"website Axios, the paper said the BSI "acted promptly."

Their actions in late November came after the US, via diplomatic channels, named German firms apparently targeted by "cloud hopper" hackers — allegedly from China.

German mechanical engineering and material research concerns were targeted in particular, the Munichbased newspaper said. Cyber experts have long warned that Germany, with its high level of manufacturing and engineering expertise, would be keenly targeted for industrial secrets by hackers. The BSI - in a5 December press release — said the worldwide-circulating malware (malicious software) "Emotet," with the potential to paralyze enterprise networks, had led to a "heap" of severe incidents in Germany. Categorized as Advanced Persistent Threats (APT), these were "highly professional" attacks adapted and automated the use of Emotet within infected networks, said BSI president Arne Schönbohm.

US sanctions Venezuela state oil firm PDVSA The US said on Monday that it would impose sanctions on Venezuelaʼs state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), as it ramps up pressure on the countryʼs president, Nicolas Maduro. The move followsWashingtonʼs public backing of National Assembly leader Juan Guaido, who declared himself interim president last week. US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the sanctions were meant to prevent Maduro from diverting more resources from the crisis-hit country, until control in Caracas could be transferred toGuaidoʼs interim governmentora new democratically elected government. Mnuchin specified that PDVSAʼs US-based subsidiary Citgo could continue operations, so long as its earnings are deposited into a blocked account in the US. Maduro accused the US of attempting to steal Citgo, saying the state oil firm will seek legal action against the US. Washington was "holding accountable those responsible for Venezuelaʼs tragic decline," Mnuchin told reporters.

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Donald Trump: US to delay China tariffs US President Donald Trump has said he would delay a planned US hike in tariffs scheduled for March 1, citing progress in trade talks with Beijing. He described recent meetings as "very productive."

US President Donald Trump said Sunday he would delay a March 1 deadline for an increase in tariffs on Chinese goods after "substantial progress" was made in trade talks between Washington and Beijing. Both sides had made progress on intellectual property protection, technology transfers, agriculture, services, currency and "many other issues," he said. Trump added that he and Chinese President Xi Jinping would conclude a final trade agreement at Trumpʼ Mar-a-Lago club in Florida if

2019: The year after peak global growth After boom comes bust — few economists would disagree that this eternal rule of free market-based or capitalist economies is as true today as it was, say, 150 years ago. A similar consensus seems to be emerging in the profession about the current business cycle, which many say is nearing its end — in 2019, or 2020 at the latest.

At the time of writing though, the post financial crisis economic boom still seems well set on becoming the longest expansion in many countries.

If the American economy, for example, makes it past June 2019 without a recession, the recovery will exceed 120 months and become the longest expansion since US economic records were first taken in 1857.

Yet, global data trackers, including the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), are less optimistic about ongoing growth in the rest of the world.

The IMF, for example, thinks global growth plateauedat 3.7 percent in 2018.

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Japanʼs Nikkei plunges after US economic turmoil Japanʼs Nikkei index closed on Tuesday after tumbling by an unusually large 5.1 percent. Stocks in Shanghai and Taiwan also tumbled following heavy losses on Wall Street over PresidentDonald Trumpʼs attack on the US central bank. Tokyoʼs benchmark stock index hit a 20-month low as worries mounted over the US economy during a government funding crisis. On Monday evening, Trump shocked investor confidence by hitting out at the Federal Reserve, tweeting: "The only problem our economy has is the Fed. They donʼt have a feel for the Market, they donʼt understand necessary Trade Wars or Strong Dollars or even Democrat Shutdowns over Borders."

Although the chairman of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, was nominated by Trump, the Fed is not under the control of the White House, much to Trumpʼs consternation. The US economy has also been suffering from trade disputes Trump has started with China.

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additional progress is made. Trump and Xihad voiced optimism about the talksafter Trump met Chinese Vice Premier Liu He in Washington on Friday. In a letter to Trump, Xi said he hoped both sides would agree on a "win-win" agreement. The United States imposed a 10 percent tariff on more than $200 billion (€176 billion) in Chinese goods in September.

Trump had threatened to increase those tariffs to 25 percent if both sides failed to agree on a trade deal by March 1.

Enemy of the people or critical public ally? The state of US media

Once a balwark of press freedom, the US is struggling with its own media landscape as local papers are bought and closed, technology is used to limit freedom of expression and scores of journalists lose their jobs.

When the White House Correspondentʼs Association (WHCA) was awarded the DW Freedom of Speech Award in 2017, President Donald Trump had only been in office for five months. Already then, tension between the executive branch and journalists tasked with covering it was growing. "The White House Correspondentsʼ Association is a guarantor for the control of those in power," DW Director General Peter Limbourg said before he presented the award to then-WHCA President Jeff Mason.

"We have complete trust in democracy in the United States of America.

This entails that we are reliant on a strong media." Accepting the award, Mason said that he and his fellow correspondents fight every day for the rights of reporters to cover leaders who make policies that affect the entire world — despite the negative rhetoric coming from the US president.

49/2019 • 27 February, 2019

Do you need a robot to get to sleep?

It mimics the breathing of a baby to get you to drift off. But does it actually work?

A Dutch entrepreneur has created a robot which is supposed to help you get a good nightʼs sleep.

Did you sleep well? If not, youʼre not alone. Studies suggest one in three of us arenʼt getting enough shut-eye. A 24-hour work culture, as well as all those hours spent in front of a screen, have caused an epidemic of sleeplessness to sweep across populations. Perhaps a robot could help.

Dutch entrepreneur and robotics graduate Julian Jagtenberg (pictured above) has createda companion that promises to help you get a decent nightʼs sleep. Itʼs soft, weighs about as much as a cat and breathes like a baby. The idea came to him three

years ago when his mother was suffering from chronic insomnia. Frustrated that her doctors were only offering her sleeping pills, he set about finding a solution. "I challenged myself to create a robot that would help my mom to sleep better," he said. He began looking into the literature on sleep and discovered that breathing and audio are two factors that can induce sleep. One research paper in particular piqued his interest. "If you hold a baby, you subconsciously replicate its breathing and heart rate.

Itʼs a magical thing."

Ukraineʼs Eurovision contestant Maruv clouded by political scandal The Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) is supposed to be a purely musical competition that transcends politics — a claim that has been spectacularly disproved in Ukraine this year. On Monday, the result of the Ukrainian national final was canceled, and Ukraineʼs participation in the ESC finale in Tel Aviv in May is now uncertain. Itʼs possible the eastern European country may have to cancel its appearance at the song contest for the second time since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014. Ukrainian winner dropped The bombshell came late on

Monday afternoon. State broadcaster UA Suspilne Movlennya announced that it would drop Maruv, the winner of the national final, after it was unable to reach an agreement with her.

The statement said there was "evidence of politicization" of the competition. It was initially unclear what would happen next. Maruv, 27, won the national final on February 23. Her raunchy performance of "Siren Song” garnered the most votes, both from the jury and from the viewers of the channel broadcasting the event, state broadcaster UA Pershiy.

Man leaves €10,000 Picasso jug on German train German police are trying to help a man find a ceramic jug made by Pablo Picasso, after he accidentally left it on a train earlier this month.

The elderly man was traveling from Kassel to Dusseldorf on February 15 when he switched trains at the city of Hamm and forgot to bring his precious cargo with him. Read more: How German was Picasso? The 26centimeter-tall (10-inch-tall) ceramic piece dates to 1953 and was an original crafted by Picasso at his Madoura workshop in Vallauris in the south of France, police said. It is part of Picassoʼs "Owl series" and is estimated to be worth at least €10,000 ($8,800).

Police said the man reported the disappearance immediately after exiting the train but the bag with the jug inside it was already gone. Read more: Picasso and windows The shopping bag was made of solid cardboard with blue lettering that read "Neumeister — Alte Kunst — Moderne." Munster Federal Police, which is investigating the case, asked witnesses who might have seen the man "forgetting" the bag to report the sighting to them.

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Culture

Renovated Museum of Fine Arts to Open on 31 October AFTER MORE THAN THREE YEARS OF RENOVATION, THE MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS BUDAPEST WILL OPEN ON 31 OCTOBER. NOW OPEN TO PUBLIC Thanks to the largest-scale and most comprehensive reconstruction project in the museum’s history, the museum building has been renewed, and, returning to the collection’s first concept, the museum’s permanent exhibitions will also be rearranged. Besides the new permanent exhibitions, the revamped museum will welcome visitors with a chamber exhibition titled Leonardo & the Budapest Horse and Rider. The museum reconstruction, implemented within the framework of the Liget Budapest Project, included the restoration of the Romanesque Hall, which sustained severe damage in World War II and since then had been only partially renovated and used as a storage area, along with the modernisation of the building’s obsolete heating system, the installation of air conditioning in some of the exhibition halls, the renewal of a large part of the roof structure, as well as the addition of new exhibition spaces, visitor areas and modern storage facilities.

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49/2019 • 27 February, 2019

Grand National 2019: One For Arthur to miss prep race at Haydock

The 2017 Grand National winner One For Arthur will miss his prep race for this yearʼs Aintree contest because of new rules introduced as a result of the equine flu outbreak. Trainer Lucinda Russell told BBC Sport the horse had to be vaccinated and will not run at Haydock on Saturday. "Itʼs disappointing but hopefully we can find another race for him," she said. Bristol De Mai heads the weights for the £1m race at Aintree on 6 April. The eight-year-old grey, trained by twotime National winner Nigel TwistonDavies, has been allocated 11st 10lb.

The Open: Royal Liverpool to host major for 13th time in 2022

Royal Liverpool Golf Club will host the Open Championship in 2022. It will be the 13th time the Hoylake venue has hosted the championship, with Rory McIlroy winning on the last occasion it staged the event in 2014. Governing body the R&A said the 151st edition of the major will take place from 10-17 July. "We know that there will be tremendous excitement among golf fans at its return to Royal Liverpool," said Martin Slumbers, chief executive of the R&A. "Its famous links has a cherished history and has produced a revered group of champion golfers, including Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy most recently." Royal Liverpool returned to the Open rota after a 39-year gap in 2006.

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Toni Söderholm takes charge of German national ice hockey team Weeks after Marco Sturm left to pursue an opportunity in the NHL, the German ice hockey team have a new coach. Finnish coach Toni Söderholm has signed a contract that will take him through the 2022 Winter Games.

The German Ice Hockey Association (DEB) confirmed on Thursday what had been widely rumored for days;Toni Söderholm is the national teamʼs new head coach. "The decision was an easy one for us," DEB President Franz Reindl told a press conference in Munich. "He knows the system, he is predestined for international ice hockey. I am proud and am 100 percent certain that it will work out well with Toni." For his part, said he was "very happy" to have accepted the post. "The No. 1 job is to make the national team better and better. Söderholm, a former defenseman, is a relatively inexperienced coach, having only retired as a player in 2016 following a season at Red Bull Munich. Before turning professional, Söderholm spent four years playing US college hockey with the University of Massachusetts. As a pro he spent the bulk of his career at the club of his youth, Helsinki IFK, but also had spells in the top leagues in Sweden and Switzerland – where he learned to speak German.

Real Madrid captain charged with getting booked deliberately against Ajax Sergio Ramos:

Real Madrid captain Sergio Ramos has played a key role in their three consecutive Champions League triumphs.

Sergio Ramos has been charged by Uefa with "receiving a yellow card on purpose" in Real Madridʼs Champions League last-16 first leg with Ajax. Ramos fouled Kasper Dolberg in the 89th minute with Real leading 2-1, meaning he is suspended for the second leg. Uefa opened an investigation into the Spaniard when, after the match,he told reportershe would "be lying if I said I didnʼt force [the booking]".

The case will be dealt with on 28 February. Ramos later clarifiedhis

post-match comments, saying: "I was referring to forcing the foul, a foul that was inevitable. Not to forcing the booking. "It was a very dangerous counter-attack in the 88th minute, with an open match and the tie as well." He added: "Thatʼs why I said that I would lie if I said I did not know that I was carrying a penalty, just as I knew that I had no other choice than to make a mistake.

And thatʼs what I meant when I said that in football you have to make complicated decisions."

LeBron James is first player in the NBAʼs top 10 all-time scoring and assists lists LeBron James became the first player to feature on the NBAʼs top 10 all-time scoring and assists lists in the LA Lakersʼ 110-105 defeat by Memphis Grizzlies.

Already the fifth highest scorer of all time, James, 34, moved into 10th place in assists with 11 on Monday night. With 24 points and 12 rebounds he also registered his 79th triple-double to move up to fifth on that list. But James criticised his team-mates after a 31st loss of the

season. "The last few years, everyoneʼs so accustomed to the losses that Iʼm just not accustomed to," said three-time NBA champion James, who joined the Lakers last July despite the team having failed to reach the play-offs since 2013. "I would never get comfortable with losing. If youʼre still allowing distractions to affect the way you play, this is the wrong franchise to be a part of and you should just come in and be like, ʼListen, I canʼt do thisʼ."