Storms Marta and Leonardo have caused widespread flooding in Spain as thousands have been displaced.

from BBC News https://ift.tt/mOzoDbG

• Former QB initially said he had no ‘dog in the fight’

• Comments had angered fans and former teammates

As the New England Patriots prepare for Sunday’s Super Bowl, Tom Brady has decided he is backing his former team after all.

Brady, who won six Super Bowls with the Patriots, came under heavy criticism this week after saying he won’t have a “dog in the fight … may the best team win” when New England take on the Seattle Seahawks in Santa Clara, California, on Sunday.

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from The Guardian https://ift.tt/ZiXPtIH

Steve Borthwick has the pleasure of nit-picking through fine details after his England side swat aside Wales in their Six Nations opener.

from BBC News https://ift.tt/JDp6wEt

The job is not done yet, far from it. But on a rainswept evening in West Yorkshire, the collective response from everyone associated with Leeds United for each of their goals left you in no doubt that this had the whiff of a season-defining night.

With Leeds and Nottingham Forest sitting an advantageous but not decisive six points above the relegation zone before kick-off, and 18th-placed West Ham United away to Burnley on Saturday, it felt like both these famous old clubs knew victory here could dramatically shape the remaining three months of the campaign.

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from The Guardian https://ift.tt/IbSHCkQ

A grand jury indictment announced on Friday supersedes initial charges brought by state prosecutors last month.

from BBC News https://ift.tt/cFxSiPl

Featuring an unlikely animal friendship, the commercial boasts enough patriotic iconography to verge on self-parody

Three years after its sister brand, Bud Light, faced a rightwing boycott over a transgender spokesperson, Budweiser’s new Super Bowl ad, American Icons, contains absolutely nothing that could be mistaken for social progress. Instead, it features an unlikely friendship between two animals whose blood runs red, white and blue: a bald eagle and a Clydesdale horse, the Budweiser icon. An adorable foal trots out of a barn, and the viewer is injected with a single minute of American iconography so pure that it would make Lee Greenwood nauseous.

The horse meets a struggling baby bird who gets caught in the rain, prompting the horse to stand over the bird as a roof. The pair become pals and grow up together, the bird riding on the horse’s back as it grows larger. It falls off a few times, but, like George Washington at Valley Forge, it never gives up. Finally, the horse jumps over a log while the bird spreads its wings above, and we get a slow-motion image of something like Pegasus. We realize the bird, now fully grown, is a majestic bald eagle, taking to the sky as Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Free Bird reaches its climax. Two farmers look on while drinking Budweiser, as the words “Made of America” appear on the screen. “You crying?” one asks. “The sun’s in my eyes,” says the other.

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from The Guardian https://ift.tt/7eBgrUf

As a treaty with Russia expires, the US president says he can get a better deal. Experts warn that could take years.

from BBC News https://ift.tt/PbO5LWf