I’M ACTUALLY SHAKING, I CAN’T WAIT FOR IT ALL TO START

Not all heroes wear capes.

Enjoy retirement, Divock ❤️

🇧🇦 Bosnia have released an official World Cup song and it's an absolute BANGER. 💙💛 🎵 "I AM FROM BOSNIA, TAKE ME TO AMERICA."

By Season 4 of The Sopranos, Gandolfini was earning $400,000 per episode. HBO wanted Season 5 on the fast track, and the offer was staggering: roughly $1 million per episode across 13 episodes. Agents celebrated. Lawyers drafted. But something stopped him cold. His co-stars were earning a fraction of what he made. Edie Falco, the woman who carried every scene as Carmela Soprano, wasn't close. The supporting cast earned even less. Gandolfini looked at his contract and saw something executives didn't want him to see — a gap that felt deeply unfair. So he did something that shocked Hollywood. He walked away. Production stalled in early 2003. HBO filed a lawsuit seeking around $100 million in damages. Headlines called him difficult. Columnists called him unstable. "They think I'm a wild animal," he reportedly told a friend that spring. The easy move would have been to sign, cash the check, and disappear into Tony Soprano's shadow — the character who made him a household name and quietly trapped him inside it. Instead, Gandolfini made a different choice. He eventually returned to the negotiating table and signed the deal. But what he did next became legend. Gandolfini reached into his own pocket and personally gave approximately $33,000 to each of 16 supporting cast members — roughly $500,000 of his own money — as a thank-you for standing by him during the shutdown. No press release. No cameras. No announcement. Just quiet envelopes handed out privately. Crew members remembered other moments too. Gandolfini would show up early at Silvercup Studios in Queens, sit in a folding chair, chain-smoke, and ask grips and lighting technicians about their kids by name. He remembered birthdays. He remembered losses. When a crew member's family member fell ill, he quietly helped with expenses. When writers pulled all-nighters rewriting scenes, he fought to protect their words on screen. The turning point wasn't the signing. It was the pause — the refusal that cost him his reputation, invited a massive lawsuit, and risked killing the biggest show on television. He bet everything on a principle most people would have quietly swallowed. Season 5 aired in 2004. Ratings climbed. Awards followed. Critics called it one of the greatest seasons of television ever made. But behind the numbers was a quieter truth: James Gandolfini used his leverage not just to lift himself — but to lift everyone standing beside him. He played a man who ruled through fear on screen. Off screen, he led through loyalty. When he died suddenly in 2013 at age 51, cast and crew members told the same stories over and over — not about his Emmy wins or his iconic performance, but about the envelopes, the folding chair, the questions about their kids. A legacy built not on what he earned, but on what he shared. Power doesn't always roar. Sometimes it whispers through a quiet envelope, handed over with no cameras watching.

This is incredible. With flights to Madrid costing over €900, a Bayern fan club came together and rented an ENTIRE plane for 180 supporters. The move cut the price in half, turning the journey into a party — fans singing, drinking, and travelling together. And in the end, they made it to the Bernabéu to back their team and to watch their team record a famous victory against Real Madrid. Well worth it. 👏 ✍️ @Juezcentral

China’s solar power plant in Dunhuang uses around 12,000 mirrors to focus sunlight onto a central tower, heating molten salt to extreme temperatures. That heat is stored and used to generate electricity on demand, including after sunset.

Jimmy's plan to tackle the Manosphere. Get tour tickets: brnw.ch/21x0Z7k

I very much do believe that Arne Slot is the right manager for Liverpool FC. I do believe that we’re through the worst of the transition and the end of this season beginning of next season will see the team finally develop coherence and consistency. I call for patience.

Just a reminder why electric vehicles are better than gas cars:

Love it, Ibou! 😂🤸

In the UK every car over 3 years old must be tested to ensure it's "roadworthy". There is a fee for this test. Currently about £54.00. Vehicle owners also pay a yearly vehicle tax to access the road network. This can be as much as £5,490.00 for large family cars and performance models. And a large percentage of the cost of petrol and diesel is also tax. It is charged at 53p per litre or £2.40 per gallon. This figure then has VAT added to it at 20%, so you are also taxed on the tax element. The total tax on the price of a gallon of fuel is currently around £3.40. The government also want to introduce a "pay per mile" charge for all road vehicles. We are told that these taxes, at least in part, are levied in order to fund the road network. A network which is crumbling before our eyes. See below. The network needs billions of £'s spent on it to restore it to a standard we would expect after paying hundreds of billions of £'s in road related taxes. Meanwhile.... the UK government continues it's policy of sending more than ONE THOUSAND MILLION £'s to foreign countries EVERY MONTH, much of it for "road infrastructure improvements". This is yet another example of a government prioritising the wrong things in the wrong countries at the wrong time - With the WRONG money. OUR money. We need it here. We don't want to fund roads between African villages or cyclepaths through third World crapholes. It must stop. But it won't. They NEVER listen to us. They are utter bastards.

Let’s break down each burner: • Family = connection, marriage, kids • Work = career, business, ambition • Health = sleep, fitness, energy • Friends = social life, joy, belonging Each takes gas. Each needs time. But you only have so much fuel.

This is an example of setting a joke up perfectly.

In 2010, the basic rate band was £37,400. In 2026, it's £37,700. A £300 increase. In 16 years. Inflation in that time? 58%. If it had kept pace, the band would be £59,000. Instead it's £37,700. That gap? Over £21,000 of income now taxed at 40% that shouldn't be. The result? 4 million extra people paying higher rate tax. People earning £50,000 are now "higher rate taxpayers." In 2010, that same salary was firmly basic rate. This is fiscal drag. The biggest stealth tax in British history. And they didn't even have to change the rates. Did you know this was happening?

"Someone kept calling the radio station requesting the same song. For 114 days straight. I'm a DJ at K-Rock 98.3. Overnight shift. Midnight to 6 a.m. Mostly lonely truckers and insomniacs listening. Around 1:15 a.m. every single night, same number calls. Same request, "November Rain" by Guns N' Roses. Eight-minute guitar solo version. First week, I played it. Thought maybe someone really loved that song. Second week, I started screening the calls. "We just played that yesterday, how about something else?" "November Rain, please." "We have a no-repeat policy" Click. They'd hang up. But they'd call back the next night. 1:15 a.m. exactly. "November Rain." This went on for months. My coworkers thought it was hilarious. Started a betting pool on when the caller would give up. They never did. Day 47, "Look, buddy, what's the deal with this song?" Long silence. Then, "Just play it. Please." The voice sounded older. Male. Tired. I played it. Day 82, My manager told me to block the number. "It's harassment." I didn't block it. Day 91, I answered. Before they could speak, I said, "It's queued up. Playing at 1:30." "Thank you," they whispered. Day 114, The call came. But different voice. Younger. Female. "This is about the November Rain requests," she said. "My grandfather passed away this morning. He won't be calling anymore." My stomach dropped. "He had dementia," she continued. "Couldn't remember much. But he remembered that song. Said it was playing when he proposed to my grandmother in 1992. At some restaurant. She died five years ago. The song was the only piece of her he could still hold onto." She was crying. "He'd get confused at night. Agitated. The only thing that calmed him was that song. So I'd call you. Every night. He'd sit next to me, listening on the radio, and for eight minutes he'd remember her. He'd smile. Then forget again. But for those eight minutes....." I couldn't speak. "Thank you for playing it," she said. "Even when you were annoyed. Even when your manager wanted you to stop. Those eight minutes were everything to him." She hung up. I sat in that booth. Played "November Rain" at 1:15 a.m. Nobody requested it. I just played it. Did it again the next night. And every night since. Some listeners complained. "Why do you keep playing the same song?" I never explained. Just said, "Station policy." But truckers started calling in. Said they pulled over during that 1:15 a.m. slot. Listened to the whole eight minutes. Some knew why. Most didn't. One guy said, "I don't even like that song. But something about hearing it at 1:15 every night..... feels like church. Like we're all stopping together. For something." They were right. It's been six months. I still play it. Every single night. 1:15 a.m. Some things aren't about what you like. They're about what someone needed. Once. When nothing else worked. That song's not mine anymore. It belongs to an old man who forgot everything except how to love his wife. And now it belongs to everyone driving lonely highways at 1:15 a.m., looking for a reason to keep going. Eight minutes. Every night. That's my church now." Let this story reach more hearts.... . Ai image is for demonstration purpose only. . By Mary Nelson

Life advice for 2026:

Incredible things happening with Grok voice mode in Teslas I love when it starts mocking him at the end 😂