Our world in photos: January 23
Brooklyn Eagle Staff
January 23, 2025
LONDON — Intense action, balletic body contact: Arsenal’s Gabriel Martinelli goes over Manchester United’s Bruno Fernandes as they challenge the ball during the English Premier League soccer match between Arsenal and Manchester United at Emirates Stadium in London, Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. Arsenal won 2-1. The Athletic reported that at least two goals from corners helped Arsenal win that game in a strategy culled from other sports like football and cricket.
On the business side of soccer, both manager Mikel Arteta and, more recently, assistant manager Albert Stuivenberg have agreed to new contracts extending their stay with Arsenal at Emirates Stadium through 2027, The Athletic reports.
GAZA — Tragic reminders that the Middle East cannot find peace: The body of 18-month-old Sham Shurrab is carried by her uncle for burial in the aftermath of an Israeli airstrike at the Muwassi camp, outside the Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Thursday, Dec. 5, 2024. Israeli airstrikes struck the camp for displaced Palestinians in southern Gaza on Wednesday, killing at least 21 people, according to the head of a nearby hospital. The international charity Save the Children estimated in October that at least 3,100 children have died in Gaza. Vatican News places the number much higher, at 13,000, adding that 70% of those killed in the war between Israel and Hamas have been women and children.
The displaced Palestinians, currently surviving in tents surrounded by rubble and trash, are facing acute shortages of food, water and security.
MIAMI — Hyperrealistic baby part of dramatic art display: A “Baby of Hope” sits among charred wood in an art piece titled “Rebirth in the Inferno,” by artist Alan Sonfist, who is part of the Land Art Forward group, during Art Basel Miami Beach Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024, in that city. Art Basel, which runs through Sunday, Dec. 8, showcases the works of galleries from five continents, focusing on modern and contemporary art. The Bronx-born Sonfist is a New York City-based American artist best known as a “pioneer” and “trailblazer” of the Land or Earth Art movement, emphasizing environmental art. His installation works have included “Endangered Trees of the Northeast,” “Endangered Trees of Denmark,” “Circles of Time,” “Circles of Life,” and “Pool of Virgin Earth,” according to the artist’s website.
Sonfist’s selected Museum Collections have been viewed at art institutions around the U.S., including The Brooklyn Museum.
TEL AVIV — Do seaside pigeons look healthier than urban street birds? Pigeons take flight as a man walks along the shore in Tel Aviv, Israel, Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. However, the city has been dealing with an issue that endangers the birds, reports The Times of Israel. The pigeons’ legs have become tangled in plastic mesh covering the grass in city parks. One local who fed the pigeons regularly wrote to city officials, who kept assuring him the problem would be dealt with.
However, other websites covering Israel have taken the argument that the pigeons themselves are a hazard because they create a breeding ground for pests and pathogens.
MEMPHIS — Sometimes it takes an intimate encounter to remove a ball: Louisiana Tech guard Amaree Abram, left, takes the ball away from Memphis guard Colby Rogers (3) during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024, in Memphis, Tenn. Memphis won 81-71.
In the 1920s, West Tennessee State Normal School played its games in the Normal Cage, the YMCA and the Messick High School gym. Memphis’ ‘winningest’ coach was Zach Curlin, who arrived in 1924, making the current year the start of his career.
Nicknamed “Mr. Everything,” Curlin was for 23 years the coach for basketball, baseball and football at Memphis. During that time, he was also director of athletics and physical education.
LONDON — Vamping it up for the latest movie: Willem Dafoe poses for photographs upon arrival at the premiere of the film ‘Nosferatu’ on Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024, in London. Billed as a supernatural horror film, “Nosferatu” deals with the infatuation and obsession that an ancient vampire has with a young woman in 19th-century Germany.
The movie is expected to make its U.S. debut on Dec. 25 — Christmas Day — when many Americans celebrate the birth of Jesus, as portrayed in two of the New Testament Gospels.
WASHINGTON — Hogtied by security, hounded by the press: Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to be defense secretary, walks through the basement of the Capitol, Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024, in Washington. As worries have spread throughout Congress that Hegseth is unfit for the job due to allegations of his excessive drinking and sexual assault, Senators on both sides of the aisle are concerned over his outspoken views against allowing women in front-line combat.
Meanwhile, conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation, to which the controversial Project 2025 is attributed, is urging Congress to confirm Hegseth’s nomination, the Associated Press reported on Wednesday.
ENGLAND — The pro-politicians theme song for change … ‘Can’t they ever get it right and leave it alone?’: Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer during his ‘plan for change’ speech in Buckinghamshire, England, Thursday, Dec. 5, 2024. Calling his opponents an “alliance of naysayers,” Starmer said that his “Plan for Change” represented the next phase of his center-left Labour government, aiming to reinvigorate what he called Britain’s sluggish economy by reinforcing the state-funded National Health Service and other public services.
Although elected in a landslide victory this past summer, Starmer has seen his popularity slump.
