A Canadian consulate in Milan that was shuttered by the Stephen Harper government almost 20 years ago as a cost-saving measure, only to be resurrected under Justin Trudeau more than a decade later, is under scrutiny for how much Global Affairs Canada spent to reestablish a presence in the northern Italian city. Read More

English and Italian football giants Manchester City, Chelsea, Inter Milan and Juventus will square up for pre-season friendlies in Hong Kong in August, the clubs announced on Tuesday.

Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City, currently arm-wrestling Arsenal for the Premier League title, will take on Inter Milan on Saturday, August 1, spearheaded by their Norwegian goal machine Erling Haaland.

The match will kick off the “Hong Kong Football Festival” at the city’s futuristic 50,000-seat Kai Tak Stadium.

The gleaming arena opened a year ago, featuring a roof that can be closed and air-conditioning to combat the fierce summer heat and humidity in Hong Kong.

Chelsea will play Juventus on Wednesday, August 5, to round off the mini-tournament.

Inter, under former Romanian international Cristian Chivu, are eight points clear at the top of Serie A as they look for a 21st title, second only to Juventus who have won a record 36 Italian top-flight championships.

Juventus are fourth and looking to secure a Champions League spot under Luciano Spalletti.

Chelsea beat PSG to win the Club World Cup in the United States last year but have since parted company with then manager Enzo Maresca.

Liam Rosenior took charge but is under pressure to keep his job after Chelsea lost five of their last six Premier League matches to drop to sixth, seven points adrift of the Champions League places.

It remains to be seen whether Rosenior will still be in charge when Chelsea land in Hong Kong as they were also drubbed 8-2 on aggregate by PSG in the Champions League last 16.

All the teams will hold open training sessions ahead of the matches giving Hong Kong fans an extra chance to see star players such as City’s Gianluigi Donnarumma, Chelsea’s Cole Palmer, Inter’s Lautaro Martinez and Juventus’s Dusan Vlahovic.

The action does not stop there for fans in the football-mad southern Chinese city, as Bayern Munich and Aston Villa have already announced they will play a friendly in Hong Kong on Friday, August 7.

During pre-season last year, 50,000 sell-out crowds in Hong Kong watched Liverpool play AC Milan and Tottenham face Arsenal in the first north London derby outside of the UK.

Tens of thousands also turned out to watch the teams’ open training sessions.

When he was a child, Antonio Najarro, 50, would skate from his home to the Conservatory. His calling was dance, and he pursued it until becoming a leading figure in Spanish dance and flamenco, eventually directing the National Ballet of Spain from 2011 to 2019. He had no idea back then that skating would become another way of shaping and spreading dance. He didn’t even fully grasp it in 2002, when he received his first request to create a choreography for the French Olympic skaters Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat, who had spent some time in Andalusia working with other flamenco creators — apparently without much success. “It seemed very difficult to me. Flamenco is so rooted in the earth that doing it on ice felt almost crazy. But curiosity got the better of me,” he says over the phone to EL PAÍS. “They saw my work and noticed that I had also choreographed for fashion and film, and I imagine that openness to taking dance beyond the stage was what interested them.”

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© COMPAÑÍA ANTONIO NAJARRO