Ferrari says it expects its contract talks with four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel to be done and dusted “very soon”, with the German driver likely to extend his stay with the House of Maranello.

At the end of last year, Ferrari secured the services of Charles Leclerc until the end of the 2024, but Vettel’s deal only runs until the end of this season.

From the 32-year-old’s retirement from the sport to Ferrari making a bold move for Lewis Hamilton, a whirlwind of speculation has been blowing around the Scuderia.

Vettel: Downforce gains have led to ‘draggy’ SF1000

But team boss Mattia Binotto’s discourse points to a probable Vettel-Leclerc status quo at the Italian outfit for 2021.

“I already mentioned it: Seb is our first option,” Binotto said, speaking during on Thursday in Barcelona.

“I think as I always mentioned, that’s a great line-up, probably the best we have in F1, of which I’m very happy and very proud to have as Ferrari.

“We are really starting an early discussion with Seb. We all are aware the contract is finishing, but it will come very soon to close the discussion and see what’s in the best interest of both of us.

“I think what’s more a matter is the project which we are sharing, even our longer-term view, so we will come very soon I am sure to an agreement.”

When queried on his future, Vettel admitted the topic wasn’t really on his mind.

“Obviously right now we are very busy with other stuff and therefore right now I would say zero. Time will tell but I think it doesn’t change anything right now.

“I think we know what we want to achieve, where we want to go and where we are now.”

Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter

Julian King clears first Parliament hurdle

MEPs on civil liberties, justice and home affairs panel back Britain’s commissioner-designate.

STRASBOURG — Julian King passed the first test in his bid to become Britain’s member of the European Commission, winning the support Tuesday of a key parliamentary committee.

Claude Moraes, chairman of the European Parliament’s civil liberties committee, said his panel would approve King’s appointment to be the EU commissioner for security issues.

The decision came after a confirmation hearing Monday night at which King appeared to win over MEPs with his vow to uphold “European interests” even as his country prepared to leave the EU. The full Parliament is set to vote Thursday on the appointment, and MEPs said they expected he would be approved for the post.

The Parliament’s largest political group, the European People’s Party, also gave its blessing to King’s appointment.

“We are convinced that he sees the need for a strong EU common response to the great variety of security challenges we are facing,” said German MEP Monika Hohlmeier, the bloc’s spokeswoman on the civil liberties panel.

Moraes, a British MEP from the center-left Socialists & Democrats political bloc, spoke to reporters after coordinators from his committee met to assess King’s performance on Monday. King is “well prepared and understood the challenges of his portfolio,” Moraes said. “On the question of competence, commitments, clarity, determination, he would act as a guardian of the treaties.”

Despite questioning from some MEPs during the hearing about the Brexit situation, Moraes said the political context of the U.K. withdrawal from the EU would not be addressed in the panel’s official evaluation of King’s fitness to serve on the Commission. 

King, currently Britain’s ambassador to France, told MEPs during his audition he saw “no contradiction” between being British and European, and that if approved as the U.K.’s commissioner he would serve the “European general interest and only the European general interest.”

But not all MEPs on the panel were convinced by King’s reluctance to discuss Brexit in detail or his assurances that he wouldn’t let British politics get in the way of carrying out his duties.

“There were so many unoriginal words while the situation is exceptional,” said Sylvie Goulard, a French MEP from the centrist Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe bloc.

Constance Le Grip, a French center-right MEP, tweeted Tuesday that she had not yet decided whether to support King’s confirmation.

Before Thursday’s vote of the full Parliament, the civil liberties committee will present its assessment of King to other committee chairs. The appointment will also be debated by the Parliament’s Conference of Presidents, which includes the leaders of the assembly’s political groups.

Commission sides with artists over tech giants in radical reforms

Juncker ‘is completely out of touch with how the internet works,’ said MEP Julia Reda.

STRASBOURG — The European Commission has a daring new plan to unify the Continent’s fragmented broadcasting market and force tech giants to pay musicians, publishers, and performers more for showcasing their creative work.

The once-in-a-generation reform published Wednesday would allow Europeans the option to buy any program that any broadcaster puts online. It would allow artists to negotiate with companies like YouTube or Soundcloud for a greater cut of their profits. And it would bail out publishers by allowing them to press news aggregators such as Google News for compensation.

“Artists and creators are our crown jewels,” President Jean-Claude Juncker said in his State of Union address here. “The creation of content is not a hobby, it is a profession.”

The expansive overhaul of copyright rules, which were last updated in 2001, is considered the most controversial ingredient of the Commission’s plan to create a single market for digital services. The executive branch would give consumers greater access to broadcasters’ online content, so citizens living in Latvia could buy access to Sky’s British broadcast of the English Premier League soccer matches, instead of hoping a Latvian broadcaster bought the rights to show the games.

The proposal is merely the end of the first round in the copyright fight: Now that the reforms have been ushered through the Commission, they will go to Parliament where MEPs will push their national interests.

And the critics were quick to react.

“He is completely out of touch with how the internet works. All this will do is stifle freedom of expression online,” said German MEP Julia Reda, who wrote a report on copyright. “This will hurt European publishers.”

Siada El-Ramly of consultancy EDiMA, which represents internet platforms, was even more pointed: “We’re disappointed on the proposal and it lacks ambition in terms of meeting the needs of the digital age. It focuses on the effective lobbying done by the publishing and music sector.”

The potential cost of lowering digital borders has sent shock waves through the media and entertainment industry. Some fear that by breaking down broadcasting barriers, consumers could shop around Europe for the lowest-priced entertainment, wreaking havoc on long-held business models: Content is typically cheaper in poorer nations.

“We’re concerned about the burden on innovation,” said James Waterworth, vice president of the Computer and Communications Industry Association.

The Commission would also force companies like Google and video-streaming service Vimeo to disclose commercially sensitive details of the contracts they sign with large record labels and recording studios to show their content on platforms. Artists would then, in theory, have more information to strike better deals for their work, and resort to a new dispute-resolution mechanism.

Although subscription-based music services attract fewer users than ad-supported platforms such as YouTube, companies like Spotify pay artists far more to supply their work online. The Commission has described the disparity between two as the “value gap.”

Google has said its “Content ID” system prevents copyrighted material from being illegally uploaded by users. However, critics, including Reda, said the cost of these recognition technologies is prohibitive for startups.

“It is therefore necessary to guarantee that authors and rightsholders receive a fair share of the value that is generated by the use of their works and other subject-matters,” the Commission said in its proposal.

The Commission’s squeeze on internet platforms doesn’t stop there.

Click Here: cheap parramatta eels jersey

The executive arm will also introduce a so-called neighboring right. It would allow news publishers to seek payment from aggregators like Google and Reddit who link to their content. The measure, dubbed a “link tax,” would give journalism the same legal protection that other media sectors already have when their work is shared without permission.

“I want journalists, publishers, authors to be paid fairly for their work, whether it is made in studios or living rooms, whether it is disseminated offline or online, whether it is published via a copying machine or hyperlinked on the web,” Juncker said.

Although it doesn’t require news aggregators to pay more, it will give publishers more leverage and a stronger incentive to negotiate as a bloc.

The Commission also will give scientific researchers the right to process large quantities of data. Some researchers have been reluctant to deploy text and data mining because of fears over copyright violations.

Laurens Cerulus and Joanna Plucinska contributed.

Hollywood star Natalie Portman has criticized Israel’s Nation-State Law as “racist” just six months after she canceled a trip to the Jewish state.

Speaking to the London-based Arabic daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi , as translated by Haaretz, the Oscar-winner hit out at legislation that passed with majority support in the Knesset.

“It is a mistake and I don’t agree with it … [people’s] lives are [being] affected on a personal level by decisions made by politicians,” she added. “I only hope that we will be able to truly love our neighbours and that we can work together.”

The controversial law, which officially defines Israel as the national homeland of the Jewish people, was passed in July and its supporters called it “a pivotal moment in the annals of Zionism and the State of Israel.”

The legislation states that a “united Jerusalem” is the capital of Israel and names Hebrew as the country’s official language, relegating Arabic to that of “special status,” as Breitbart Jerusalem reported.

In April the Israel-born performer rejected the chance to attend an acceptance ceremony hosted by the Genesis Prize Foundation in her homeland.

“Recent events in Israel have been extremely distressing to her and she does not feel comfortable participating in any public events in Israel,” a spokesperson said at the time, while Portman herself argued that her decision was because she didn’t want to be “appear as endorsing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.”

The Genesis Prize is a $1 million award given annually to Jewish people who have attained recognition and excellence in their fields.

Previous winners include former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, actor Michael Douglas, musician Itzhak Perlman and sculptor Sir Anish Kapoor.

Portman said she was “deeply touched and humbled by the honor” when the prize was first announced in November 2017, and said she’s “proud of my Israeli roots and Jewish heritage.”

Twelve months ago New Zealand starlet Lorde also canceled a concert in Tel Aviv after she cited an “overwhelming number of messages & letters” urging her to join an “artistic boycott” driven by the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement .

Follow Simon Kent on Twitter: Follow @SunSimonKent or e-mail to: [email protected]
Click Here: cheap parramatta eels jersey

 

Austrian-born actor Arnold Schwarzenegger is still lamenting the fact that the U.S. Constitution bars him from running for president because he was born in a foreign country.

In an interview with British talk show host Graham Norton conducted just ahead of the release of the next iteration of the Terminator series, Schwarzenegger expressed his frustration that he is barred from making a run at the highest office in the land, the Daily Mail reported.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, who came to the U.S. in 1968 at the age of 21, became a U.S. citizen in 1983. But because he is not a natural-born citizen, the Constitution bars him from becoming president.

“Of course,” the Terminator star said when asked if he was disappointed that he could never become president. “It would have been great to jump in and run.”

“It’s the only thing I can’t do in America. Everything else I’ve done is because it is in America, it’s the land of opportunity,” Schwarzenegger added.

Schwarzenegger has lamented his ineligibility to run for president many times since he won office in California. In 2016 he told Ad Week that he wished he could run for president instead of Trump.

Still, even though he ran for, and won, the office of Governor of California, Schwarzenegger insisted that he hates politics.

“I hate politics. Even when I was Governor (of California), I never considered myself a politician,” he told Norton.

The Predator star also told Adweek that he was never very fond of politics. “I didn’t love politics,” he said of his time in the governor’s office, “but I love policy.”

Still, the actor is busy campaigning against gerrymandering, fighting climate change, and takes often takes shots at President Donald Trump.

Schwarzenegger will co-star in Terminator: Dark Fate debuting next month.

Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.

Click Here: cheap south sydney rabbitohs jersey

Actress and Left-wing activist Gina Rodriguez is again at the center of a social media-fueled firestorm. This time the actor is apologizing for saying the N-word while singing the Fugees hit song “Ready or Not.”

“I am sorry if I offended anyone by singing The Fugees, to a song that I love, that I grew up on,” Rodriguez said in a video message to her four million-plus Instagram followers. “I love Lauryn Hill. I really am sorry if I offended anyone.”

In a now-deleted Instagram video, the Jane the Virgin star is seen singing the Fugees song lyrics thusly, “I can do what you do … believe me. Niggas give me heebie-jeebies.” The backlash came quick, with many making the argument that Rodriguez has a habit of saying and then apologizing for racially insensitive remarks.

In January, a teary-eyed Gina Rodriguez apologized for comments she made about the racial income disparity amongst actors during a discussion panel in November of 2018.

“I get so petrified … talking about equal pay, especially when you look at the intersectional aspect of it,” the actor said at the time. “White women get paid more than black women, and black women get paid more than Asian women, Asian women get paid more than Latina women, and it’s like a very scary space to step into.”

“The last thing I want to do is put two underrepresented groups against each other,” said Rodriguez, after her pay disparity comments were slammed as “anti-black.” “Our unification is what is our rise. Our unification is what’s going to allow both of our communities to continue to flourish.”

Coming under more fire, Rodriguez issued another apology on Wednesday morning.

Jerome Hudson is Breitbart News Entertainment Editor and author of the bestselling book 50 Things They Don’t Want You to Know. Order your copy today. Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter @jeromeehudson.

The Norwegian has had his fair share of setbacks during his time on the bench at Old Trafford but one former team-mate thinks he will succeed

Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is “doing a good job” at Old Trafford, according to club great David Beckham.

Solskjaer – in his first full season at the helm having initially replaced Jose Mourinho on an interim basis in December 2018 – has overseen a topsy-turvy campaign, with United languishing fifth in the Premier League.

United have beaten Manchester City, Chelsea, Tottenham and Leicester City this season, and drawn with runaway leaders Liverpool, but the Red Devils are still three points adrift of the Champions League places.

More teams

Despite United’s struggles, Beckham – who played alongside Solskjaer at the Theatre of Dreams – praised the Norwegian boss.

“I think he’s doing a good job,” Beckham told Sky Sports. “The fact that he’s stepped in and stepped up, and that he continues to be positive about players, he’s got that from the boss [Alex Ferguson]. He would never criticise a player from his club and Ole has been exactly the same.

“He’s still learning but he will protect his players and protect Manchester United. All of the fans will be behind him because he’s a great person and because of what he’s done for Manchester United over the years.”

United have struggled since Alex Ferguson retired after guiding the club to Premier League glory in 2012-13.

Only twice have United finished in the top four – in 2015 and 2018 – following Ferguson’s exit as David Moyes, Louis van Gaal and Jose Mourinho have come and gone.

Bitter rivals Liverpool are 22 points clear atop the table and 38 ahead of United as they close in on their first league crown since 1990 and Beckham – now co-owner of MLS expansion side Inter Miami – said: “I think when you’re a club as big as Manchester United and you’ve had the amount of success that we had, there was always going to be a period where other clubs have some success.

“When that success is being had by Manchester City or Liverpool it’s always going to be talked about. There was always going to be a transition period, especially when Alex Ferguson stepped down.

“You had David Gill working at the club too and the players stopped playing, Giggsy [Ryan Giggs], Scholesy [Paul Scholes] and the Nevs [Gary and Phil Neville], they all stopped playing so there was always going to be a period when they weren’t as successful.

“Is it hard to watch them now? No because I’m a real Manchester United fan and whatever the situation, I love watching them play. But let’s hope it doesn’t last for too much longer that we go without trophies because we are one of the biggest clubs in the world and not many clubs have that tradition.”

Celebrities pushed gun control, criticized the NRA, and blamed President Donald Trump after a 16-year-old shot five fellow students in Santa Clarita, California.

Breitbart News reported that surveillance cameras caught the suspect pulling a .45 caliber handgun out of his backpack and opening fire at the school, shooting the fellow students before shooting himself.

CBS Los Angeles reported that two of the five wounded students died after being transported to the hospital.

Michael Moore responded to the shooting on social media:

Actress Alyssa Milano and actor Michael Ian Black responded to the shooting by criticizing the NRA.

Click Here: Italy Football Shop

Milano shared the hashtag “NoRA”:

Black called the organization “terrorist”:

Author Stephen King used the shooting to criticize President Trump:

Actress Minnie Driver (pictured, left) engaged in some hashtag activism:

And actress Debra Messing called for action and included a note to Moms Demand in her tweet.

Little Mermaid’s Lin-Manuel Miranda made a general call for more “gun control now,” while Piper Perabo (pictured, right) used the shooting to push for universal background checks in particular.

Perabo did not mention that California has had universal background checks since the 1990s. The state also has an “assault weapons” ban, a 10-day waiting period on gun purchases, and a requirement that would-be gun buyers get a safety certificate from the state before buying a firearm.

California has a one-handgun-a month purchase limit, registration requirements for gun owners, ammunition controls, gun confiscation laws, and a ban on teachers being armed to shoot back in case they are under attack.

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at [email protected]. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.

Brexit Files Insight

Trade talks: For non-British eyes only?

UK fights back against EU claims it should be frozen out of trade meetings.

Reports that the EU is considering shutting the U.K. out of sensitive briefings on trade policy, following warnings that Britain will become a competitor for striking trade deals post-Brexit, went down predictably badly in London.

Prime Minister Theresa May’s official spokesman today said Britain would not countenance being frozen out of any trade discussions before it leaves the bloc. “While we’re members of the European Union we would expect our obligations but also our rights to be honored in full,” the spokesman said.

But other EU governments are increasingly uneasy about the U.K.’s plans to start negotiating trade deals now. Although London is not allowed to hold such talks unless Brexit is officially completed, “we can do preparatory work with other countries on our future trading relationships,” Trade Secretary Liam Fox said during a visit to Australia last week.

That’s a problem for EU leaders: Just last week, the EU finished a scoping exercise with Australia — the precursor for official negotiations with Canberra that are supposed to start later this year. Brussels is also negotiating, or wants to start, trade deals with India, New Zealand, the Philippines and the Gulf states — all countries that the U.K. would also like to engage with in its search for an early trade harvest.

As Brussels and London are about to become competitors for striking the best deals globally, EU leaders apparently see it as a threat that London has full access to the EU’s briefings, strategies and offers. At least three EU countries have brought up the idea of excluding the U.K. from the trade policy committee, where trade attachés meet on a weekly basis to discuss negotiating strategies and to receive exclusive briefings from the European Commission on the progress of talks.

Although such an exclusion would be a complicated legal tussle, it might ultimately prove justifiable as London’s “preparatory work” — which one diplomat called “pure camouflage” for real trade talks — could be a violation of EU law, sources in the committee said.

Michel Barnier, the European Commission’s Brexit negotiator, shares these concerns. There is a “need for a discussion about the treatment of sensitive information in the context of certain trade negotiations, to which the U.K. would continue to have access to while it remained a full member of the Union,” Barnier told a meeting of European commissioners last month.

Click Here: Italy Football Shop

This insight is from POLITICO’s Brexit Files newsletter, a daily afternoon digest of the best coverage and analysis of Britain’s decision to leave the EU. Read today’s edition or subscribe here.

Chemistry is the most important part of building your Ultimate Team – here’s how it all works and how to maximise it in game

FIFA Ultimate Team (FUT) allows FIFA 20 players to build their dream squads, but incorporates a game mechanic known as chemistry to ensure that people cannot just stick 11 players into a lineup to create a super team.

Chemistry is one of the most confusing aspects of the game for beginners when they first start their FUT adventure, but, when understood correctly, it can allow gamers to build hybrid teams that include multiple high-rated players – even putting Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi in the same XI.

Bad chemistry has a negative impact on your team and actually can make players perform poorer than their ratings, while high and maximum chemistry gives a boost to ratings, even making players sprint quicker and shoot and pass the ball more accurately.

Contents

1. What is individual player chemistry?
2. What is team chemistry?
3. How does chemistry change player quality?
4. What chemistry do substitutes have?
5. Which attributes does chemistry boost?

What is individual player chemistry?

Each player in the starting XI receives a chemistry score between one and 10. This is determined by the players immediately around them on the pitch as well as their position in the lineup. The chemistry benefits from these factors are indicated by three colours: red, orange or green.

A red position indicator means the player is totally out of position, e.g. a striker playing in defence. Orange means they are partially out of position, e.g. a centre-back playing at full-back. Green means that they are in the correct position.

Position change cards can be bought to improve the position score of a player, e.g. turning a defensive midfielder into an attacking midfielder or a left winger into a left midfielder. However, there is no position card available to change a player from one side of the pitch to another, e.g. a left-back into a right-back.

The main determining factor for individual player chemistry is their links with other players on the pitch. Depending on formation, a player will have between two and five links to nearby players. These are indicated by lines connecting the players and follow the same colour scheme as the position indicator: red, orange or green.

The player links are calculated by how many things the player has in common with an adjacent player – from nationality, league and club.

Red indicates nothing in common, orange indicates one thing in common and green indicates two or more things in common. The total links with all adjacent players are then used to calculate the individual link chemistry, using a score made up of -1 for red links, +1 for orange links and +2 for green links.

Icons automatically have an orange link with every adjacent player and green links with players of the same nationality.

Player chemistry can also be boosted by adding a suitable manager to your squad. Managers have both nationality and league attributes, and will give each player a +1 boost to their chemistry if either of these are common traits.

The last thing that provides a +1 boost is player loyalty. This is shown by a coloured shield on each player card. A clear shield indicates that the player has no loyalty and a green one shows that they have full loyalty.

Any player obtained in packs or through SBCs or Objectives where you are the “First Owner” will automatically have full loyalty, but players bought on the Transfer Market need to play 10 games with your club before they get full loyalty.

Return to top

What is team chemistry?

After you have built a complete starting XI, connecting players to each other using links and adding a manager, your team will be given a total chemistry rating out of 100.

The calculation for this is simple – add all the individual player chemistry scores together to make a total. As a result, you can get a team chemistry score of 100 without having every player on 10 chemistry. This allows you to build hybrid teams from more than one league or country.

Return to top

How does chemistry change player quality?

When playing matches in FIFA 20, both the team chemistry and individual chemistry are used to calculate what boosts the player receives. The following formula is used to determine what boost is applied to their attributes: 

(Team Chemistry*.25) + ((Player Chemistry*10)*.75)

If this number is over 50, players will receive boosted attributes up to a maximum of 99. A score of exactly 50 does not affect attributes, while anything under 50 sees player attributes actually decrease.

A player with an individual chemistry score of 10 lining out in a team with 100 chemistry will receive the maximum boost, as seen in the example calculation below:

(Team Chemistry*.25) + ((Player Chemistry*10)*.75)
 (100*.25) + ((10*10)*.75)
 = 25 + 75
 = 100

A player with an individual chemistry score of 7 lining out in a team with 100 chemistry, receives a boost to their attributes but this will be less than the maximum score, as seen in the example calculation below:

(Team Chemistry*.25) + ((Player Chemistry*10)*.75)
 (100*.25) + ((7*10)*.75)
 = 25 + 53
 = 78

Return to top

What chemistry ratings do substitutes have?

As substitutes are not assigned individual chemistry ratings like players in the starting XI, they are automatically given a Player Chemistry score of five, regardless of what links they may or may not have with the rest of your team. As a result, both Messi and Ronaldo would get the same score coming off the bench for a team built entirely of La Liga players.

The calculation is the same as the formula for players in the starting XI, but will see each substitute only receive a small boost to their attributes because of their default Player Chemistry score of five. This is indicated in the example below where Team Chemistry is 100:

(Team Chemistry*.25) + ((Player Chemistry*10)*.75)
 (100*.25) + ((5*10)*.75)
 = 25 + 37.5
 = 62.5

Return to top

Which attributes does chemistry boost?

Each player has a chemistry style applied to them, as indicated by an icon at the bottom of every card.

New players have the Basic chemistry style applied, which will boost attributes in all six areas: Pace, Shooting, Passing, Dribbling, Tackling and Physical.

Other chemistry styles focus on two or three of these areas and provide more significant boosts to a few specific attributes than the Basic chemistry style, which applies small boosts throughout many attributes.

For example, Basic chemistry style gives a maximum +5 to all of these attributes: Acceleration, Positioning, Finishing, Shot Power, Volleys, Penalties, Vision, Long Passing, Short Passing, Curve, Agility, Ball Control, Dribbling, Marking, Standing Tackle, Sliding Tackle, Jumping and Strength.

Hunter chemistry style focuses in on two areas: Pace and Shooting and provides the following boosts at maximum chemistry: Acceleration (+15), Sprint-Speed (+10), Positioning (+15), Finishing (+10), Shot Power (+10), Long Shots (+5), Volleys (+10), Penalties (+15).

Return to top