Month: September 2019

The Portuguese superstar has often been praised for his good looks as well as his footballing ability, but how much of that has he paid for?

Cristiano Ronaldo is one of the finest footballers on the planet and one of the most well-groomed celebrities in the public eye. Many joke about the Juventus striker’s fascination with his image but would he choose plastic surgery to make himself look as good as possible?

It is no secret that Ronaldo loves his looks just as much as he loves scoring goals. Stories have popped up throughout CR7’s career surrounding his self-admiration time and time again. 

One such story was shared by ex-England striker Peter Crouch after Rio Ferdinand told him about Ronaldo’s vanity whilst at Manchester United.

“Rio Ferdinand would tell us stories about how Cristiano Ronaldo would stand in front of the mirror naked, running his hand through his hair, and say, ‘Wow. I’m so beautiful!'” Crouch told the Daily Mail.

“The other United players would try to wind him up, [saying] ‘Whatever. Leo Messi is a better player than you’. And he would shrug his shoulders and smile again. ‘Ah yes. But Messi does not look like this…'”

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Would football’s biggest superstar splash the cash on plastic surgery to make himself feel even better when he looks at his reflection? Experts certainly think so.

Speaking to The Sun in 2016, cosmetic surgeon Alex Karidis looked at Ronaldo’s transformation since arriving at Old Trafford as an 18-year-old in 2003.

“It looks like he has had Botox around the eyes and forehead. His skin is now almost immaculate,” said the expert.

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Karidis would go on to say he may have had fillers at some point to make his skin look better. 

“Fillers plump up an area where time has deepened the lines, such as smile lines around the mouth.

“Ronaldo’s face is smooth there now which could be because of fillers which are injected in fluid form into the skin.”

The surgeon also speculated that Ronaldo could have had work done on his nose but she says it could just be a natural progression.

“It is possible he has had a tweaking to the tip of his nose although it isn’t drastic.

“His nose looks smaller than it was ten years ago but that could just be his face evolving.”

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It’s no surprise that Ronaldo wants to maintain his looks as one of his favourite pastimes is staring at himself in the mirror, as revealed by former team-mate Wayne Rooney.

“There’s a mirror by Ronaldo’s seat in the Old Trafford dressing room. In the time I’ve been playing with Ronnie, the one thing I’ve noticed about him is that he can’t walk past his reflection without admiring it, even if we’re about to play a game of football,” the former Manchester United striker wrote in his 2012 book ‘Wayne Rooney: My Decade in the Premier League’.

“Every match, before the team goes out for the warm-up, he runs through the same routine. The kit goes on, the boots go on. Not long after, Ronnie turns to his reflection and stares, psyching himself up for the game.”

While Rooney was very public about his hair transplant in 2011, it’s never been confirmed if the ex-Real Madrid star had a procedure when his hairline appeared to be deserting him in 2013.

Ronaldo was pictured at a Monaco gala with signs of a receding hairline, a normal thing for many men as they age, but it had seemingly vanished upon his next public appearance.

In response hair transplant experts from The Belgravia Centre wrote a tongue-in-cheek message on their website: “We’re sure the star would want to catch hair loss as soon as it began.”

The Reds youngster speaks exclusively to Goal ahead of his side’s Champions League clash with Bayern Munich on Tuesday

As Trent Alexander-Arnold stands in the Anfield tunnel on Tuesday night, as the atmosphere builds and the first strains of Tony Britten’s iconic anthem ring out, the Liverpool full-back could be forgiven for taking a moment to pause and reflect.

Life, you’d have to say, is pretty good for the young Scouser right now. Not everyone gets to live their dream, but Alexander-Arnold has been doing it on a weekly basis. These Champions League nights under the lights are becoming the norm for the quietly-spoken 20-year-old.

“I remember when I was a kid and I was in the stands,” he exclusively tells Goal ahead of the last 16, first leg clash with Bayern Munich. “I was speechless then and I am speechless now!

“It’s very tough to describe. Not many people will experience it, but you feel so lucky and privileged to be able to play in these games, and to be part of such an amazing club and such an amazing atmosphere. These nights are incredible.”

Tuesday will be Alexander-Arnold’s 69th appearance for Liverpool, and his 18th in the Champions League. He may still speak with the wide-eyed enthusiasm of a youngster, but in footballing terms he is growing up fast.

In the last 12 months alone, he has become the youngest player to appear for Liverpool in a European Cup final, made his senior England debut, scored his first international goal and played at a World Cup finals. He is, as they say, ‘doing bits’ for both club and country. 

“It was an unbelievable year,” he says, a hint of a smile appearing. “It was something that me and my family are very proud of.

“Obviously when you’re very young, you dream of those sorts of occasions. I’m very grateful they have happened, and now I want to focus on getting more of them.”

Alexander-Arnold grew up in West Derby, close to Liverpool’s famous Melwood training ground. A boyhood Red, he remembers peering through a hole in the complex’s perimeter wall, hoping to catch a glimpse of his idol, Steven Gerrard.

Now he is looking to emulate his hero, to be the home-grown star, the supporters’ representative on the field. “I saw Gerrard and [Jamie Carragher] do it when I was young,” he said recently. “I always wanted to be them.”

It was Ian Barrigan, now Liverpool’s head of pre-Academy recruitment and player retention, who first alerted the Reds to Alexander-Arnold’s potential. Barrigan ran a Sunday League team, and used to ferry his star player to and from games. He’d spotted the youngster’s natural talent a mile off.

At six, he was invited to train at Kirkby, and at eight he would sign his first Liverpool contract, the club seeing off stiff competition from Everton, where Alexander-Arnold had also trained.

“I always supported Liverpool,” he says. “My whole family did!

“I started playing football with my mates and my brothers, in the playground or the park or the front garden. It was just about enjoying it, having a good time playing. I wanted to play all the time.

“Then I started playing Sunday League football, and obviously from there you move into academies, and that’s when you realise that’s where you want to be.”

At Liverpool, his progress was swift. Working under coaches such as Iain Brunskill, Mike Garrity and Karl Robinson, now the manager of Oxford United, Alexander-Arnold was seen as the jewel in the Academy’s crown. Technically gifted, athletic and with a rock-solid mentality, he was always seen as a potential first-teamer, even if predicting the path of a young footballer is rarely a wise move.

“I was probably 13 or 14 when I realised I had a chance to make it,” Alexander-Arnold tells Goal. “That’s when I realised that a bit of education had to be sacrificed in order to become a footballer.

“I’d miss some lessons to go training, miss some afternoons, which was difficult for me and my family because we were so focused on me getting good results in exams and things like that.

“But it’s good that I had the support and the backing of my parents especially, to have the faith in me to hopefully see my dreams come true. That’s something that I’m really thankful for. Some parents could have said ‘no, it’s not possible, you have to focus on school first and foremost’ but we came up with a plan to catch up on schoolwork, to do extra homework or to stay in during lunch and break-times, and those sacrifices were all worth it.”

Now, the trick is to build on what has gone before. Back from an ankle injury, he’s a certain starter against Bayern as Liverpool look to give their supporters another memorable Champions League campaign.

He’s already the youngest player to represent the club in a European Cup final – a fact he admits he “brushed off” at the time – but anyone expecting Alexander-Arnold to rest on his laurels will be in for a shock. This is one focused, determined, dedicated young footballer.

“In all honesty [the rise] is something that has surprised me,” he admits. “But it is something that I always wanted. To be a Premier League player is something that not everyone can say, even some of the best players in the world can’t say that!”

Government moves to address slowing birth rate and aging workforce. Wang Xiaodong reports.

Editor’s note: To celebrate the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, we are publishing a series of stories reflecting on changes and developments in fields such as law, education, transportation and the environment. This is the seventh, and last, in the series.

Yang Dan, the mother of a 6-year-old boy, has occasionally considered having another child, but she has never taken the idea seriously.

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“It’s so expensive to raise a child nowadays. The pressure of having a second child is too much for us to shoulder at the moment,” she said.

The 32-year-old works at an agricultural research institute in Panjin, Liaoning province, and she and her husband, 34, spend more than a third of their combined monthly income on their son.

Having another child would mean they would either have to spend half of what remains of their salary to find a nanny, or Yang would have to quit her job and become a full-time housewife to care for the children. Neither option is affordable, she said.

“In the past, having one more child did not raise a family’s expenditure too much, but things are different now because you have to provide the best things available for them,” she added.

Many other young couples in China share that opinion. Despite the latest policy changes designed to encourage couples to have two children, many seem unwilling to do so, as indicated by official statistics and surveys.

In the past two years, the number of births on the Chinese mainland has fallen, despite a notable rise in 2016, the year the universal second-child policy was adopted.

Last year, the number was 15.23 million, a fall of 2 million from 2017, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

Population surveys for the first half, conducted in cities such as Chongqing, in the southwest, and Weifang, Shandong province, suggest the number is likely to fall again this year.

Moreover, many population experts have predicted declines over the next few years. They warn that a decline in the total population is an irreversible trend, despite the positive effects of the universal second-child policy. That would exacerbate problems such as the aging population and dwindling workforce.

Shanghai-based China Eastern Airlines will become the first carrier globally to use 5G networks after it starts pilot operations for the same at the newly opened Beijing Daxing International Airport. Such a move will help the airline to provide smarter services such as facial recognition for check-ins and boarding.

With a total planned investment of over 120 billion yuan ($16.9 billion) at Daxing airport, the largest terminal worldwide, China Eastern aims to help passengers achieve paperless travel with the integration of 5G networks and artificial intelligence.

“The development of 5G and other smart, convenient services has been a major trend for the aviation industry in recent years, and global carriers are striving to develop such services,” said Zou Jianjun, a professor at the Civil Aviation Management Institute of China.

“We are still in the initial development stage and unsure about the future, but Chinese airlines hope to lead the development of 5G and smart services, and play an important strategic role in growth in the age of Industrie 4.0,” he said.

Passengers can get a one-time facial recognition registration with the self-help machines at Daxing airport, and then they will be able to go through all the processes, including ticket purchases, check-ins, bag checks, security checks, and boarding, by facial recognition. There is no need to show any identification documents, China Eastern said.

“At the various smart machines in the Daxing airport, passengers can check flight status and gate information, weather conditions of their destination, and the rough time needed to walk from certain locations to their boarding gates,” said Huang Lin, director of ground services for China Eastern at Daxing airport.

Meanwhile, China Eastern will also introduce battery-free electronic baggage-checking tags, which will allow passengers to track the luggage status on their mobile phones. The e-tag is like an ID card for the suitcase.

When passengers arrive at the airport, they can self-check-in the luggage with the e-tag and self-service machines, and check luggage status by scanning the bar code during the whole process of bag transportation. After pilot operations at Daxing, the carrier will use e-tags at more major routes and hub airports in China, and will also provide individual tailored e-tags, China Eastern said.

On Wednesday, along with six other airlines, China Eastern operated its first flight with an Airbus A350 aircraft from Daxing to Pudong airport in Shanghai. The first group of passengers experienced facial recognition technologies at the airport.

China Eastern will gradually shift all its flights to Daxing. By March 2020, most of its flights, except those between Beijing and Shanghai, will be transferred to Daxing.

With the opening of the Daxing airport, China Eastern will get more international flight rights from Daxing to destinations like Paris and Moscow. In the next few years, it is looking to increase its market share in Beijing with more slots and capacity, the company said.

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What you crave is sometimes right under your nose; only, you look elsewhere. Well, that saying is probably true.

My friend and I decided to flee Beijing during Mid-Autumn Festival. Our ideal chill-out destination, we wished, should be tranquil, picturesque, homey, fun, accessible and affordable. Preferably, it should offer the best of both worlds – a bit of nature like mountains, waters, wildflowers, farms, plus digital-age creature comforts like broadband Wi-Fi and air conditioning.

Our shortlist of places far and near got pruned pretty quickly: places didn’t tick the boxes. And then, we chanced upon a farmstay option on a vacation rental app.

The place met all of our criteria and then some, if you include great hospitality, bucolic beauty, rural Chinese culture and a glimpse into the homestay business.

For over three days, we got to savor all these just about 100 kilometers northeast of Beijing, on the northern edge of the Miyun Reservoir, near Bulaotun’s Yunfeng scenic spot (home to a breathtaking lavender garden on a mountaintop).

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The farmhouse, called Wonderful, is run by Sun Yun, a retired schoolteacher, and her husband Fang Qibin, a farmer (and domestic help, facility manager, local guide, barbecue specialist, chef, and pet minder).

Famous for breathtaking sceneries and diverse cultures, Guizhou is one of the most promising travel destinations in China. See more the province’s changes over the decades in a 70-second video.

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While many Canadian politicians joined in celebrating the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, they acknowledged some of the diplomatic difficulties that the relationship has experienced since December.

That is when Canadian authorities arrested Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Huawei Technologies Co, the daughter of the telecom giant’s founder Ren Zhengfei, in Vancouver, at the request of the United States.

The Canadian politicians gathered last weekend in Toronto to commemorate the founding of the New China in 1949.

“I believe that both Canadians and Chinese people expect to get the relationship back on track very quickly,” said Hazel McCallion, a 98-year-old former Canadian politician and businesswoman. “I hope that the Canadian government sits down and solves the problem and gets on with living a wonderful life in China and Canada,” she said.

“China is our second-largest trading partner. … We sell, they buy; they bring, we buy. This hasn’t stopped,” said City of Toronto Councilor Jim Karygiannis, who has visited China 56 times and spent more than a year and half there.

“Now our relationship has hit bumps in the road. It is not because of us, but because of our friend to the south. We should get on with the bumps until they disappear,” he said.

Chinese Consul General Han Tao in Toronto stated that a sound China-Canada relationship serves not only the shared interests of two peoples but also the long-term development of both countries.

“China has all along valued our bilateral relations. Currently, China-Canada relations face huge difficulties. We hope to strengthen communication with the Canadian side and remove obstacles to bring China-Canada relations back to the right track,” Han said.

Han said that Chinese people have created “an economic miracle” through their hard work, with the nation’s GDP increasing by more than 450 times, from $30 billion in the early years to more than $13.6 trillion in 2018.

Frank Scarpitti, mayor of Markham, Ontario, a city that has built a strong trade relationship with Chinese cities in recent years, said it will continue to strengthen those connections.

“I will say that in the city of Markham and the municipal governments across Canada, we demonstrate and value the relationships we have with so many local businesses in China, and we will continue to do so,” Scarpitti said.

Untapped potential

Canada Senator Victor Oh said that a stronger bilateral relationship will unlock untapped commercial potential and create new opportunities for Canadian businesses.

“We are both located in the Pacific Rim region; we are making headway in fields such as natural gas, lumber, agriculture and technology. Canadian businesses are actually placed in a good position when dealing with China,” Oh said.

The politicians also expressed amazement at China’s development.

“As we celebrate the 70th anniversary of the New China, I can remember the dramatic change I have experienced in China,” Karygiannis said. “You don’t have to get in the car to travel now; you get the fast (high-speed) train instead. I believe it is about 350 kilometers per hour. Why don’t we do it between cities in Canada?”

“In 1987, you had to have special money to go to China, and you couldn’t shop in any stores but the Friendship Store,” recalled McCallion, who was mayor of Mississauga, Ontario, from 1978 until 2014.

“I stayed in the big hotel in Beijing that was built up by the Germans. There was a Toronto-Beijing Hotel, built by a person from the Mississauga here,” she said.

“People dress in amazing suits compared with 30 years ago. China also has lots of the most beautiful hotels in the world. We even don’t have such beautiful hotels here.”

Canada was one of the first Western countries to recognize the PRC. Next year will mark the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two nations. Their trade volume has increased 500 times in the past 49 years, and they aim to double bilateral trade with each other by 2025.

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Central China’s Henan province is the birthplace of Chinese civilization. Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the province’s improving rural living environment has become a model of China’s rural development. Get to know more of Henan in the short video.

The European Union’s highest court has ruled that Google is only obliged to uphold the right to be forgotten on the internet in Europe, and not worldwide.

In 2015, France’s Commission nationale de l’informatique et des libertes, an independent French administrative regulatory body also known as CNIL, ordered the online search engine to remove damaging or false information about people on a worldwide basis. The following year Google introduced a block on European users, but did not apply it to other territories, leading to CNIL attempting to fine it 100,000 euros ($109,900).

Google, supported by groups and organizations including Microsoft and the owners of Wikipedia, challenged this at the European Court of Justice. The court has now ruled “Currently, there is no obligation under EU law, for a search engine operator who grants a request for de-referencing made by a data subject… to carry out such a de-referencing on all the versions of its search engine”.

In addition to the technology business aspect, there was also considerable legal interest in the case, because had the ruling gone against Google, it could have been interpreted as an attempt by Europe to extend its powers beyond the boundaries of the EU.

Since 2014, European citizens have had a right to request the deletion of sensitive personal information, the so-called “right to be forgotten”, by making a request verbally or in writing for an organization to remove the material in question, with a set time limit for any response.

The 2018 General Data Protection Regulation rules further complicated the issue, and Google’s defense against using it outside Europe was that it could be abused by authoritarian regimes looking to hush up human rights abuses.

“The balance between right to privacy and protection of personal data, on the one hand, and the freedom of information of internet users, on the other, is likely to vary significantly around the world,” added the court’s ruling.

Google gave a positive reaction to the verdict. “Since 2014, we’ve worked hard to implement the right to be forgotten in Europe, and to strike a sensible balance between people’s rights of access to information and privacy,” said a statement from the company. “It’s good to see that the court agreed with our arguments.”

Thomas Hughes, from freedom of expression organization Article 19 who supported Google’s case, also welcomed the ruling.

“Courts or data regulators in the UK, France or Germany should not be able to determine the search results that internet users in America, India or Argentina get to see,” he said. “It is not right that one country’s data protection authorities can impose their interpretation on internet users around the world.”

Over the last five years, Google said it has received 845,501 right to be forgotten requests, resulting in 45 percent of the 3.3 million referred links being removed. The content is not deleted altogether, but it can no longer be accessed by searching for the name of the person in question.

 

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Chinese No 1 taking setbacks in her stride as positive thinking prevails

Although Wang Qiang is almost certain to finish the season as China’s No 1, the 27-year-old has experienced one of the toughest years of her career.

Nagging injuries and the death of her coach have made for a particularly difficult 2019 for the world No 16, with Wednesday’s 6-2, 6-1 loss to American Alison Riske (No 35) at the Wuhan Open symptomatic of her stuttering form.

But Wang is made of steely stuff mentally, and her positive post-match attitude demonstrated a determination not to let setbacks divert her from her ultimate goal of winning a Grand Slam.

“My whole team tries to avoid letting me think too much. They don’t want to focus only on how many points I have earned in the second half of the season,” said Wang in Wuhan.

“After being injured this year, I haven’t been in good condition. To improve I need to play more and win more.”

Wang enjoyed a breakthrough season last year when she captured her first two WTA titles and reached the final of the WTA Elite Trophy Zhuhai.

However, a waist injury that she described as “a time bomb that could explode any time” put the brakes on her rapid rise up the rankings.

“The injury has been bothering me this season, which is a problem I’ve never faced before,” Wang told China Daily in Wuhan.

“I missed many tournaments this season. The waist injury cannot be totally repaired immediately. I’m still receiving treatment and need to stay relaxed off the court. The priority is to control it.

“This has been a very tough year for me with everything that happened, including the change of my coach.”

The latter was necessitated by the July death of Wang’s former mentor, Peter McNamara, following a battle with cancer.

By Wang’s own admission, McNamara was a key factor in her spike in form last season. The Australian’s confidence in his protege was clear at last year’s Wuhan Open, when he told China Daily: “The potential is there. It’s about whether she can believe in herself and continue to work in a right way. I think she can. She’s a fantastic kid.”

McNamara’s death clearly rattled Wang.

“I knew he was sick, because earlier this year he couldn’t stand but only sit to watch my training sessions,” she said.

“I always worried about him. I was afraid something could go wrong when he sat by the court.

“He did not tell me what kind of illness he had so as not to worry me too much.

“I never thought that everything would happen so fast.”

Like McNamara, Wang’s new coach, Thomas Drouet, reckoned the player had some unrealized potential after being immediately been impressed with her athleticism and analytical capacity – which he described as her “two weapons”.

Although it’s still early in Drouet’s tenure, Wang’s run to the US Open quarterfinals indicated the Frenchman is the right fit.

Wang defeated French Open champion Ashleigh Barty at Flushing Meadows before being abruptly halted in her tracks (6-1, 6-0) in the last eight by 23-time Grand Slam champion Serena Williams.

“Before the match I knew Williams was a great player, but I didn’t realize just how good she could be,” Wang told China Daily.

“After the match. I was like, ‘wow, she’s too impressive.’ It’s about her strength, the way she attacks and the pressure she puts you under.”

For now, Wang’s focus will start to shift toward next season as she targets more deep runs at the majors.

“This year, I rested totally about two months,” said Wang. “I didn’t even do much rehab to recover from the injury. For non-athletes, two months sounds not too long. For us pros, it’s a very long time. And it’s hard to return to my peak condition after that. I believe things are getting better, and I’m trying to rediscover the best me.”