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Italy

Watch The Best Freestyle Soccer Players Show Off Their Tricks In Italy

LA REPUBBLICA (Italy)

Worldcrunch

LECCE – Though Barcelona has “King Lionel Messi”, this week the Italian city of Lecce is rolling out the red carpet for Iya Traore ("The Prince of Paris") and Abdellah ("Amsterdam’s Maradona") to show off their tricky soccer skills at the Red Bull Street Style soccer world championship.

Held in São Paulo in 2008 and Cape Town in 2010, the third edition of the freestyle soccer world championship final is taking place in the southern Italian town through Saturday.

The rules: 3 minutes, 2 players, 1 ball. Teams will be rated by a five-member jury from the world of soccer and breakdance.

Get ready for plenty of mind-blowing flicks, tricks and spins by some of the most gifted players in the world. Note that a special ball was designed for the event and 2006 FIFA World Cup champions Filippo Inzaghi and Fabio Cannavaro are expected to join the event.

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FOCUS: Israel-Palestine War

What Are Iran's Real Intentions? Watch What The Houthis Do Next

Three commercial ships traveling through the Red Sea were attacked by missiles launched by Iran-backed Yemeni Houthi rebels, while the U.S. Navy shot down three drones. Tensions that are linked to the ongoing war in Gaza conflict and that may serve as an indication as to Iran's wider intentions.

photo of Raisi of iran speaking in parliament

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi at the Iranian parliament in Tehran.

Icana News Agency via ZUMA
Pierre Haski

-Analysis

PARIS — It’s a parallel war that has so far claimed fewer victims and attracted less public attention than the one in Gaza. Yet it increasingly poses a serious threat of escalating at any time.

This conflict playing out in the international waters of the Red Sea, a strategic maritime route, features the U.S. Navy pitted against Yemen's Houthi rebels. But the stakes go beyond the Yemeni militants — with the latter being supported by Iran, which has a hand in virtually every hotspot in the region.

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Since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, the Houthis have been making headlines, despite Yemen’s distance from the Gaza front. Starting with missiles launched directed toward southern Israel, which were intercepted by U.S. forces. Then came attacks on ships belonging, or suspected of belonging, to Israeli interests.

On Sunday, no fewer than three commercial ships were targeted by ballistic missiles in the Red Sea. The missiles caused minor damage and no casualties. Meanwhile, three drones were intercepted and destroyed by the U.S. Navy, currently deployed in full force in the region.

The Houthis claimed responsibility for these attacks, stating their intention to block Israeli ships' passage for as long as there was war in Gaza. The ships targeted on Sunday were registered in Panama, but at least one of them was Israeli. In the days before, several other ships were attacked and an Israeli cargo ship carrying cars was seized, and is still being held in the Yemeni port of Hodeida.

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