Image: AFP/Getty ImagesSTRINGER/AFP/Getty Images

Want to know what the uterus looks like in the various stages before a baby is born? Yeah, you do.

British artist Damien Hirst has officially unveiled 14 colossal bronze uterus sculptures outside a hospital in Qatar, graphically documenting the stages from conception to birth.

The gigantic bronze work is called The Miraculous Journey, and begins with the fertilization of an egg, depicts various stages of a fetus growing inside the uterus, and culminates in a 46-foot baby. 

Each sculpture ranges from 5 to 11 metres (16 to 36 feet) in height and the whole thing weighs a massive 216 metric tonnes. 

Sitting in Qatar’s capital of Doha, the work has been installed outside the newish $8 billion Sidra Medical and Research Centre, which AFP reports has quite the contemporary art collection, including an installation by fellow British artist Tracey Emin.

Hirst’s sculptures were commissioned for $20 million by art enthusiast and chairwoman of the Qatar Museums Authority, Sheikha al Mayassa Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani (the sister of Qatar’s ruling Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani), as part of a set of cultural initiatives that “aim to redress the traditional boundaries between eastern and western art in the Middle East.”

The sculptures were actually unveiled in October 2013, but were reportedly covered up until the big reveal in October 2018. 

Image: STRINGER/AFP/Getty Images

The official reason, reports AFP, was to protect the sculptures against damage from hospital construction, but the news wire noted that the statue had seen its fair share of social media discussion around its appearance.

“We do not expect everyone to like them, we do not expect everyone to understand them,” Layla Ibrahim Bacha, arts specialist at the government-funded Qatar Foundation, told AFP. 

“That’s why they are here to create an element of debate and reflection. We believe that (the work) reflects Sidra’s mission to care for the health of women and babies.”

Image: STRINGER/AFP/Getty Images

Sheikha al Mayassa Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, who commissioned the work, told The New York Times in 2013, when it was first announced, that she didn’t consider the work controversial. 

“To have something like this is less daring than having a lot of nudity,” she said. “There is a verse in the Koran about the miracle of birth. It is not against our culture or our religion.”

Image: STRINGER/AFP/Getty Images

Hirst said in his 2013 release that the work came from “a desire to create something monumental, whilst essentially human.”

“Ultimately, the journey a baby goes through before birth is bigger than anything it will experience in its human life,” he said. “I hope the sculpture will instill in the viewer a sense of awe and wonder at this extraordinary human process.”

Like it or not, patients won’t miss it.

Haris Seferovic scored a hat-trick as Switzerland completed a scarcely believable comeback to thrash Belgium and reach the Nations League finals.

Thorgan Hazard scored twice for Belgium in the opening 17 minutes, leaving the Swiss needing four goals to progress.

Ricardo Rodriguez gave them hope with a penalty before Seferovic scored from close range and then smashed them into the lead.

Nico Elvedi headed in their fourth before Seferovic’s third.

Switzerland will now play in next June’s Nations League semi-final against hosts Portugal, England or whoever progresses out of France and the Netherlands.

Swiss looked out of it after bad start

Switzerland fans must have been thinking about leaving after Hazard’s two early goals in Lucerne.

He took advantage of Elvedi’s weak back-pass from brother Eden Hazard’s ball to give them a second-minute lead and then smashed another into the bottom corner.

A 1-0 or 2-1 win would have done for Switzerland but because of away goals in their head-to-head record with Belgium, they needed to win by two goals once Belgium had taken a 2-0 lead.

Against the side ranked number one in the world – and after such an electric start for Belgium – that was looking very unlikely.

Belgium left floored by Swiss recovery

The hosts started another brilliant Nations League comeback, on the day England scored twice late on to beat Croatia and reach the finals.

The recovery started when Nacer Chadli fouled Kevin Mbabu as the former Newcastle player tried to shoot. Rodriguez stepped up and sent keeper Thibaut Courtois the wrong way.

Seferovic, who has scored only four goals for Benfica this season, was their unlikely hero – although Xherdan Shaqiri was magnificent too.

The pair combined for the second when the Liverpool attacking midfielder headed a cross over to Seferovic to score from close range.

And they took the lead in the game when the Swiss broke quickly from an Eden Hazard corner and Edimilson Fernandes’ cross was fired home by Seferovic.

Elvedi, who was responsible for the opening goal, put them in pole position for the first time when he headed in Shaqiri’s excellent cross.

Shaqiri had a hand in the fifth when his backheel found Mbabu, whose cross was perfectly headed home by Seferovic.

The Belgians looked stunned from the moment the Swiss started to come back and their best chance came seconds after the fifth goal when Eden Hazard’s shot was tipped onto the bar by Yann Sommer.

England’s Amy Jones has a lucky escape as the ball hits her stumps without removing the bails during the Women’s World Twenty20 tie against West Indies.

FOLLOW LIVE: England v West Indies – in-play clips, TMS & text

WATCH MORE: ‘A staggering catch’ – Australian Vlaeminck’s amazing take

Available to UK users only.

Image: Stephanie Keith/Getty Images

This year has been horrendous for Silicon Valley’s public image.

With a litany of issues like data misuse and political interference laid bare within the last 12 months, Apple CEO Tim Cook told Axios on HBO that government regulation of the tech industry is “inevitable.”

“Generally speaking, I am not a big fan of regulation,” he said in an interview from Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino.

“I’m a big believer in the free market. But we have to admit when the free market is not working. And it hasn’t worked here. I think it’s inevitable that there will be some level of regulation … I think the Congress and the administration at some point will pass something.” 

Cook made the comment after saying that technology creators didn’t set out to do evil, but rather they didn’t anticipate the “negative things it could be used for.”

It’s the latest instance of Cook’s thinly-veiled criticism of Facebook. Without naming names, last month Cook lambasted companies who collect your private data, and put “profits over privacy.” 

He called for a federal privacy law, where a person has the right to have personal data minimized, the right to know what user data is being collected and why, the right for users to access their data, and the right to security. 

Apple has taken a staunch view on privacy in the past, going toe-to-toe with government agencies, as exemplified in its famous battle with the FBI and its blocking of hacking tools used by law enforcement to break into iPhones.

Yemen’s Houthi rebels say they will halt drone and missile attacks on Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and their Yemeni allies.

The group said in a statement on Sunday it was ready for a broader ceasefire if “the Saudi-led coalition wants peace”.

International pressure has mounted on Yemen’s warring parties to end the war that has killed more than 10,000 people and pushed the country to the verge of starvation.

The move from the Houthis came after the Saudi-led coalition ordered a halt in its offensive against Yemen’s main port city Hodeidah, which has become the focus of the war.

“After our contacts with the UN envoy and his request to stop drone and missile strikes … we announce our initiative … to halt missile and drone strikes on the countries of aggression,” Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, the head of the group’s Supreme Revolutionary Committee, said in a statement.

‘Show good faith’

UN special envoy Martin Griffiths is trying to salvage peace talks after a round in September collapsed when the Houthis did not show up. He hopes to convene talks before the end of the year in Sweden to agree on a framework for peace under a transitional government.

Yemen’s parties have given “firm assurances” they are committed to attending peace talks to be convened shortly, Griffiths told the UN Security Council on Friday, and pledged to escort the Houthi delegation from the capital Sanaa if needed.

The group – which has been battling the Saudi-backed government for nearly four years – added it was ready for a broader ceasefire if “the Saudi-led coalition wants peace”.

“[The decision] came to support the UN envoy, to show good faith and support the peace efforts,” the statement said.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE both have said they support UN-led peace talks.

Deadly air strikes

The Houthis say their missile attacks on Saudi Arabia are in retaliation for air raids on Yemen by the Western-backed coalition, which entered Yemen’s war in 2015 to try to restore the Saudi-backed government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

The coalition has carried out thousands of air strikes in the impoverished country that have hit schools, markets and hospitals, killing hundreds of people – though it says it does not target civilians.

The Houthis last July unilaterally halted attacks in the Red Sea to support peace efforts, after Saudi Arabia suspended temporarily oil exports through a strategic Red Sea channel following attacks on crude tankers.

Key Western allies including the United States have called for a ceasefire ahead of the renewed UN efforts.

Western countries have provided arms and intelligence to the Arab states in the alliance, but have shown increasing reservations about the conflict since the murder of US-based Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul early last month.

SOURCE:
Reuters news agency

A Valentino Lazaro goal with the last kick of the game won the Nations League clash for Austria against Northern Ireland at Windsor Park.

It was a heartbreaking end after what had been a positive performance from Michael O’Neill’s side.

They looked set for their first point of the competition when Corry Evans hit a 57th-minute equaliser after Xaver Schlager’s goal eight minutes earlier.

Northern Ireland have lost all four matches in the new Uefa competition.

The hosts knew they were relegated from the Nations League Group B3 before Sunday’s kick-off, but they had wanted to try to end 2018 on a high.

And, while the home fans will have recognised their efforts to do so, the high-energy atmosphere for which Windsor Park is renowned was somewhat lacking.

The 17,895- crowd roused themselves after the equaliser and welcomed the second-half introduction of Kyle Lafferty, but it never threatened to become the most memorable of nights at the south Belfast ground.

After a first half in which Niall McGinn came closest to scoring when he curled a free-kick inches wide, Austria took a 49th-minute lead after an impressive left-wing move.

Bayern Munich’s David Alaba cleverly left the pass inside and Schlager swept home a low left foot shot into the bottom corner for his first international goal.

Evans’ equaliser was his second goal for Northern Ireland and came 45 games after his first in 2010.

George Saville pressed well in midfield and the ball came to Jordan Jones on the left wing, who slipped it inside to Evans whose deflected left-foot shot deceived goalkeeper Heinz Lindner.

Ultimately, though, it counted for little as Lazaro curled a perfectly-directed shot beyond the outstretched Trevor Carson and into the top corner to secure the Austrians’ first win in Belfast at the fifth attempt.

Superb Saville already a fans’ favourite

He has been earmarked by some Northern Ireland fans as the long-term successor to captain Steven Davis in the Northern Ireland midfield, and that may well prove to be the case for George Saville.

But the Middlesbrough man, who was introduced to the team towards the end of the last World Cup qualifying campaign, has already formed a fine axis with the skipper in a three-man engine room with scorer Corry Evans.

Saville was superb once again in the middle of the park for O’Neill, closing the Austrians down throughout and even more impressive as a driving force when in possession.

His pressing helped lead to Evans’ goal and he almost put his side 2-1 up in the 76th minute. He got on the ball 20 yards from goal and hit a searching shot with his cultured left foot that curled just wide of the post.

Oliver Norwood was suspended for this game and may find it difficult to force his way back into the midfield, with Davis once again a huge influence on the team and Evans proving his worth with the goal.

NI manager’s change of style

O’Neill’s side had a definite style of play for the recent Euro and World Cup qualifying campaigns. The team had a compact shape, was often happy to surrender possession and look to hurt the opposition on the break.

With the utmost attention paid to every detail by the manager, it was a percentage game that may not have been easy on the eye of the neutral, but which proved effective.

The ball moved from back to front quickly, often to target man Kyle Lafferty, and Northern Ireland reaped a lot of joy from well-rehearsed set-pieces.

There has been a noticeable change of style from O’Neill this season, with a much greater focus on possession and building attacks from the back. That element has been successful but they had failed to score in five of their last six competitive matches before Sunday night.

Northern Ireland once again looked comfortable on the ball against Austria, but, unlike in Thursday night’s friendly in Dublin, they did not create many clear-cut chances.

O’Neill has four months to think about how his side continues to evolve before they start their Euro qualifier campaign in March.

Food for thought at full-back

One of the most surprising elements of Michael O’Neill’s team selection was his deployment of Stuart Dallas at left-back, although the Leeds United winger produced a solid display.

The choice of Michael Smith on the other side of the back four was perhaps less surprising, given how well he performed against the Republic of Ireland in Dublin on what was only his second start.

The Hearts defender once again looked assured in a position which has been filled most often in recent years by Millwall’s Conor McLaughlin. Bayern Munich’s David Alaba was a threat for the Austrians down the left flank but Smith stuck to his task well against the Bundesliga forward.

Smith and Dallas were playing in a defence that welcomed back Gareth McAuley after he missed the last five internationals. The crowd favourite received a warm reception from the home fans and the Rangers centre-half was his reliable self alongside Leicester City’s Jonny Evans.

McAuley took the place of Watford regular Craig Cathcart who has been in fine form for club and country of late.

O’Neill has used a back three before but with the way the team is evolving, it looks more like he will have a few decisions to make in his defence come March.

Kicking the losing habit

While Northern Ireland’s World Cup qualifying campaign ended in dismay when they went out to a controversial Switzerland goal in a play-off, the results and performances in the group maintained the positive momentum generated at the Euros in 2016.

But now they have gone eight competitive games without a win, losing seven and drawing one.

While the evolution of their style of play has been positive, they are stuck in the habit of losing meaningful matches which they will need to address in 2019.

Manager O’Neill said throughout the Nations League that the Euros was his main focus and all thoughts will now turn to the draw in Dublin on 2 December.

Run without a win goes on – the stats

• Northern Ireland are winless in their last eight competitive games (D1 L7), their worst run since going nine without victory between September 2011 and March 2013.
• Austria scored with both of their shots on target in this game, courtesy of Xaver Schlager and Valentin Lazaro. Neither player had previously scored for their country.
• After keeping a clean sheet in four consecutive competitive home games, Northern Ireland have conceded in each of their last four.
• Corry Evans’ equaliser was Northern Ireland’s first goal in 350 minutes of action since Gavin Whyte netted in the 67th minute against Israel in September.
• Evans scored his first goal for Northern Ireland since September 2010 versus Slovenia, 2998 days ago.
• Austria’s Marko Arnautovic has been directly involved in 26 goals (15 goals and 11 assists) in 37 games for club and country in 2018, compared to 19 involvements in 44 games in 2017 (13 goals and six assists).

Image: Pexels

If you’re trying to protect your online data, the easiest (and smartest) thing you can do is get a VPN. These virtual private networks (yep, that’s what it stands for) can make a big difference in helping to keep your data secure online. One that routinely tops our lists of the best VPNs is PureVPN, which is currently running a sale in honor of Black Friday. (Live in the UK? Go here.)

Get on sale for only $79 right now, which works out to be only $1.32 a month. That means five quarters and a dime and you’re good to go every month for five years. (We’ll just let that sink in.)

SEE ALSO: 5 of the best VPNs, according to Reddit

PureVPN allows for unrestricted access to all the movies, shows, and sports you could hope for on its more than 500 high-speed servers spanning across 140 countries and reportedly has impeccable access in China. You’ll get reliable security for internet use and file-sharing. But in the off chance something does happen, there’s an internet kill switch. A single account allows you to connect five devices simultaneously, offering the same security and performance to your smartphone as your computer.

Phnom Penh, Cambodia – In June 2017, Cambodia’s pro-democracy opposition party made unprecedented gains in the local commune elections, casting serious doubt on Prime Minister Hun Sen’s ability to extend his 33-year rule in the following year’s national election.

There was a spirit of optimism when Kem Sokha’s Cambodia National Rescue Party prepared to take on Hun Sen at the ballot box. Decades of political violence seemed to be at an end and democracy, first attempted in 1993, was within Cambodia’s grasp.

On November 16, 2017, however, the CNRP was forcibly dissolved on spurious allegations of attempted revolution, leaving politicians, analysts, and journalists across the world no choice but to declare Cambodia’s democracy officially dead.

Today, the country is effectively a one-party dictatorship with the opposition party scattered across the world, only spoken about in whispers in Cambodia.

Hun Sen’s Cambodian People’s Party occupies all 125 seats in the National Assembly. Kem Sokha is under house arrest for unfounded charges of treason. Other CNRP leaders such as co-founder Sam Rainsy and Sokha’s daughter, Kem Monovithya, live abroad to avoid a similar fate. Their supporters live in a state of constant fear.

The transition to full-blown authoritarianism was strongly condemned abroad, with the US and European Union threatening to impose sanctions if democracy is not restored. The EU is considering revoking a preferential trade deal with Cambodia, a move that would cost the economy hundreds of millions of dollars. At the top of the West’s list of demands: the unconditional release of Kem Sokha and the reinstatement of the CNRP.

No future

Lee Morgenbesser, an expert on authoritarian regimes, said the CNRP has no future under Hun Sen, who has repeatedly declared the party cannot be resurrected.

“For a brief moment, the CNRP showed ordinary citizens that there was a political party fighting for the emergence of democracy in Cambodia,” he said in a recent email.

In a forthcoming paper titled Cambodia’s Transition to Hegemonic Authoritarianism, Morgenbesser explains how the recent crackdown was unprecedented and fundamentally changed the nature of Cambodia’s political landscape.

New constitutional amendments declare that political parties “must place the country and nation’s interests first”, a vague requirement that would give the Cambodian government broad authority to accuse opposition parties of being unconstitutional. Other amendments gave the politically biased Supreme Court the authority to dissolve any political party.

Not only were these laws used to destroy the CNRP, but they also ensure that nothing like the CNRP can ever challenge Hun Sen again.

“A few civil society groups and autonomous media organisations might be allowed to operate, and a few political opponents might be allowed to participate, but none will be permitted to threaten the CPP’s newfound hegemony,” Morgenbesser wrote in the article.

‘Cautiously hopeful’

The CNRP was originally formed by the merging of two distinct opposition parties led by Rainsy and Sokha, respectively. After Sokha’s arrest, the party quickly splintered along these old alliances. The deputy leaders did not appear to have a contingency plan, and there were frequent spats between Rainsy supporters and Sokha supporters.

Just this month, tensions flared again when Rainsy offered to make a wager with Hun Sen on when Sokha would be released. Sokha’s camp blasted the stunt, calling it “immoral” and “indecent”.

In spite of this, the CNRP’s exiled leaders on both sides still believe the fractured party can return.

“I am cautiously hopeful that we will regain our space in the country in the near future,” said Sokha’s daughter Monovithya, who has been campaigning for international action against Hun Sen’s regime since her father’s arrest.

Meanwhile, Rainsy said the party’s dissolution “vindicated” the CNRP, proving it is the legitimate representative of the people.

“Hun Sen had actually no choice but to dissolve the CNRP in order to remain in power because he knew he would lose any real election,” Rainsy claimed.

While it might be a stretch to say CNRP definitively would have won a fair election, it was clearly a risk Hun Sen wasn’t willing to take.

“Hun Sen could dissolve the CNRP on paper but not in the hearts and minds of the people,” Rainsy said.

It’s true that more than three million supporters didn’t simply disappear, but so far they haven’t been a significant presence during the crackdown. Nobody protested when the CNRP was dissolved and only a handful gathered when Sokha was brought to court in Phnom Penh.

Heng Ratha, a former member of the CNRP’s provincial working group in Siem Reap, said he wishes the party’s leadership had remained in Cambodia to lead resistance efforts.

“For my own opinion I don’t think it was so necessary for the CNRP leaders to leave the country like [vice-president Mu] Sochua and Rainsy. They should return to Cambodia to confront and find a solution with [CNRP] members and supporters,” he said.

International pressure

While Rainsy has correctly pointed out that returning carries the risk of arrest or even assassination, doing so would force Hun Sen to make a difficult decision, something he has not yet had to do. If Rainsy returned, Hun Sen would have two choices. Either arrest another high profile, popular politician, inviting unrest and increased international pressure, or allow him to assume a leadership position in any resistance movement. For Hun Sen, forcing influential dissidents abroad is the best-case scenario.

To their credit, the leaders in exile have had significant success in appealing to the international community for pressure and sanctions.

Other CNRP activists, like the outspoken Kong Mas in Svay Rieng, say they support the decisions the party leaders have made and believe they did everything they could. While the CNRP could have been more prepared or made better decisions during the crisis, judging them too harshly would be akin to victim blaming – they were put in a position they never should have had to deal with in the first place.

“There were many dialogues between the CNRP and the ruling party, but Hun Sen always violated the agreements,” Mas said.

Mas sees the revocation of the EU trade deal as the best chance for change, predicting that almost a million garment workers will lose their jobs.

“That circumstance will make a lot of people angry and people will gather and protest against the government to solve the problem,” he said.

Others are not so optimistic. Than Sorith in Kampong Cham agrees the CNRP leadership acted appropriately, but doesn’t see a future for the party.

“I don’t think the CNRP can return to political activity,” he said, adding he doesn’t believe people will protest even if the trade deal is canceled.

While it’s unlikely the CNRP will return, Morgenbesser does see change on the horizon, noting that demographic trends do not favour the ruling party.

Citing “deep grievances concerning corruption, inequality, land grabbing, and development”, Morgenbesser warns that Hun Sen has added another problem to his list: “undermining expectations for democracy among Cambodian youth”.

Watch the moment 21-year old Alexander Zverev seals a surprise 6-4 6-3 victory over world number one Novak Djokovic with a sublime forehand passing shot to win the ATP Finals title at the O2 Arena in London.

WATCH MORE:Highlights: Dominant Zverev beats Djokovic to win ATP Finals

REPORT: Zverev stuns Novak Djokovic to win ATP Finals in London

Available to UK users only.

Nearly 20 years on and several disappointing sequels later, Shrek is still on our minds.

As it has been for over 200 people, who have contributed to a huge and very weird project called Shrek Retold, a scene-by-scene remake of the 1999 film.

Behind it all is 3GI, the team responsible for the annual festival dedicated to the cantankerous ogre, Shrekfest. A mix of animation, bizarre 3D renderings, and live action scenes, the film’s trailer really speaks for itself.

Shrek Retold is set to be released on 3GI’s YouTube channel on Nov. 29.