Man City clinches Premier League title



Sports Desk, Barta24.com
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Manchester City added a fifth Premier League trophy to its decade of dominance on Tuesday following Manchester United's loss to Leicester City, which put Man City out of reach of its crosstown rival. Its unassailable lead stands at 10 points with three matches still to play, giving Man City a third title in the last four years.

All three of those have come under Pep Guardiola, who pulls level on league title trophies with Premier League managerial legends Arsène Wenger and José Mourinho. As a whole, City now has seven English top-flight titles, drawing the club level with Aston Villa for fifth-most all-time.

Manchester City has enjoyed unprecedented success under Guardiola, winning the last four League Cups while also securing the FA Cup in 2019. Last week, City scored its 700th goal of Guardiola's tenure in just 288 matches.

However, City's journey to a title took a different approach this season. After seven straight seasons with at least 15 goals from Sergio Agüero, City has only one player in the Premier League's top-10 goalscorers—central midfielder Ilkay Gündogan is the club's unlikely leading scorer with 12 league goals.

Yet City's depth and squad balance proved to be the difference in a season that featured a short offseason due to last season's shutdown and postponement. Despite the impact of the pandemic, City had its highest summer transfer bill ($195 million) since 2017, adding Rúben Dias, Ferran Torres and Nathan Ake to the squad while offloading former standouts Leroy Sane, Nicolás Otamendi and club legend David Silva.

The squad additions helped City to overcome a horrid start to the season that saw it as low as 13th in the table in late November. By March, the club had set an English record with 21 consecutive victories in all competitions, including 15 straight Premier League wins to catapult to the top of the table.

With Agüero's imminent departure at the end of this season, the last remaining member of the club's first Premier League-winning team in 2011–12 will ride into the sunset with five league titles, the most by a non-European player in league history.

However, City's business is far from done this season. Despite being denied the chance at a historic quadruple by Chelsea in the FA Cup semifinals, Man City is closer than ever to its first Champions League title. The club will face Chelsea in the Champions League final on May 29.

   

Iran is cracking down on women who don't wear Hijab



International Desk, Barta24.com
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Iran is cracking down on women and girls who don't wear Hijab. The country has started a new campaign named 'Noor' from last April 13. Since then, the implementation of the Hijab law has started to become stricter.

Iran has strict laws on wearing the Hijab. Strict action is taken against those who break this law.

Some videos of women being assaulted have gone viral on social media. In them, it is seen that women who go out without Hijab are forcibly picked up in cars by the members of the 'Morality Police'.

A video shows a mother and daughter walking through Tehran's busiest square in the capital. At that time, they were surrounded by five female and two male members of the police. When they tried to evade arrest, they were violently beaten and taken into a car.

Dina Ghalibaf, a female student at Tehran's Shahid Beheshti University, wrote on the micro-blogging site X that she was barred from boarding the metro. When she insisted, she was taken to a room. She claimed that she was beaten and sexually harassed there.

The student was arrested a day after making such a post and taken to Evin prison.

British newspaper The Guardian spoke to some of those arrested. One of them told the media that eight members of the police surrounded her last Saturday. At that time, she was called "prostitute", "naked American prostitute" and insulted her. Apart from this, the young woman claimed that men also touched her during the arrest.



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Boeing incurs huge losses after door open incident



Special Correspondent, Barta24.com, Dhaka
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Boeing lost a huge amount of money due to the opening of the doors of the Boeing aircraft of Alaska Airlines in mid-air. US aircraft manufacturer Boeing reported a loss of US dollar 343 million in the first quarter of this year (January-March).

An unused door on an Alaska Airlines Boeing Max 9 collapsed moments after takeoff from Portland, Oregon last January. Although the Alaska Airlines plane was able to land safely in this incident, questions about Boeing's safety have been raised around the world.

As a result, Boeing reduced the production of the aircraft according to their target. As a result, Boeing is forced to pay huge losses in the first quarter of this year.

After the Alaska Airlines incident, the United States Aviation Agency ordered the grounding of 171 Boeing Max 737 aircraft. In the wake of the incident, Boeing's chief immediately admitted the mistake and promised to fix the problem with 100% transparency. But even this did not save the end. Boeing's CEO was eventually forced to resign.

In order not to cut the heat of this incident, a former Boeing engineer recently talked about the manufacturing defects of the Dreamliner 787. He recommended grounding all Dreamliner aircraft worldwide. In this incident, the safety of Boeing was questioned again.

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Rahul Gandhi sick in heat



International Desk, Barta24.com,Dhaka
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Lok Sabha election campaign is going on in India amid intense heat wave. Political leaders are continuing to campaign despite the unbearable heat.

Meanwhile, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has fallen ill. Congress leader Jairam Ramesh disclosed the news of Rahul Gandhi's illness on Sunday (April 21).

Jairam Ramesh said that Rahul Gandhi has fallen ill. He cannot leave Delhi right now. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge will address the Ranchi rally after attending the Satna meeting.

Rahul was scheduled to attend the opposition camp's mega shows in Satna in Madhya Pradesh and Ranchi in Jharkhand on Sunday.

Ahead of the mega show, Ranchi is decorated with posters of India Alliance leaders. The poster has pictures of Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, former Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren and his wife Kalpana Soren.

Apart from Rahul Gandhi, Samajwadi Party national president Akhilesh Yadav, RJD chief Lalu Prasad, Kejriwal's wife Sunita and Hemant Soran's wife Kalpana were scheduled to address the meeting. 

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Erdoğan's meeting with Ismail Haniyah



International Desk, Barta24.com Dhaka:
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan held a meeting with Ismail Haniyah, the leader of the Palestinian independence organization Hamas, who is visiting Turkey. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan stressed the importance of Palestinian unity in the meeting.

On Saturday (April 20), the two leaders met in Istanbul for about two and a half hours, Turkish media reported.

Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh was welcomed at Dolmabak Palace in Istanbul. Members of his delegation were also with him at that time. One of the most important leaders of Hamas was Khaled Mashal.

Turkish state media TRT reported that Erdogan and Haniyah discussed a ceasefire and relief in Gaza.

"It is very important that the Palestinians work together in this process," Erdogan said in a statement after the meeting, calling on Palestinians to unite in order to win against occupying Israel. The strongest action against Israel and the path to victory depend on unity and integrity.”

Erdoğan's meeting with Haniyah was not taken well by the occupying Israel. Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz condemned the meeting in a post on the micro-blogging site X.

On October 7, the war between the Palestinian armed group Hamas and Israel began. More than 34,000 Palestinians have lost their lives in this war so far. Turkish President Erdogan has been condemning Israel's brutality since the beginning of the war. He said he and his country would side with Hamas in the war against Israel.

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