Raspadori will provide competition for Lazio’s Ciro Immobile and Torino’s Andrea Belotti for the striker spot after a breakout season in which the 21-year-old scored six goals in 27 Serie A games. Italy manager Mancini cut his preliminary group of 33 players down to 28 on Sunday, when Paris St Germain striker Moise Kean was the highest-profile casualty. Gianluca Mancini, Politano and Pessina were then left out of the final squad as Raspadori was re-called from the Under-21 setup. Juventus defender Giorgio Chiellini will captain the side, one of seven survivors from Euro 2016 along with Alessandro Florenzi, Immobile, Salvatore Sirigu, Leonardo Bonucci, Lorenzo Insigne and Federico Bernardeschi. Euro 2020 will mark their return to major tournament football five years on from a run to the quarter-finals of Euro 2016, after they failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

WROCLAW, Poland (Reuters) - A makeshift Poland fought out a 1-1 draw with visiting Russia in a Euro 2020 warmup on Tuesday after Vyacheslav Karavaev cancelled out Jakub Swierczok’s early opener for the home side. The striker side-footed the ball past Russia goalkeeper Anton Shunin from eight metres after Przemyslaw Frankowski set him up from a deep pass by Mateusz Klich, delighting home fans in Wroclaw’s Miejski stadium. The Russians were pegged back in the opening exchanges but drew level in the 20th minute as right back Karavaev tucked the ball past goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski at the far post after a superb Aleksandr Golovin cross. The game fizzled out after the break as both teams made an array of substitutions and neither was able to create any clear-cut chances. Russia are in Euro 2020 Group B alongside Denmark, Finland and Belgium while Poland are in Group E with Spain, Sweden and Slovakia.

Egypt on Thursday won the seat of presidency for the regional committee of the Middle East at the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) during elections held during the 47th meeting of the committee in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. It was also agreed that Egypt would host the meeting of the UNWTO Commission for the Middle East in its 48th session scheduled to be held during 2022. Egypt’s Minister of Tourism and Antiquities Khaled al-Anany thanked the UNWTO for electing Egypt to head the regional committee for the Middle East. He praised the Egyptian state’s recent efforts to promote the tourism sector, and all precautionary measures taken to resume tourism to Egypt. The 47th meeting of the Middle East Regional Committee witnessed an agenda full of important topics regarding ways to support the tourism sector’s recovery within the region and for future opportunities.

CAIRO – 1 June 2021: The International Publishers Association announced Tuesday accepting proposals for projects to develop a culture of reading outside the classroom in Africa. This comes within the grant program of the African Publishing Innovation Fund, which amounts to $200,000 channeled for the best ideas that aim at making books available to larger segments of Africans. Many African publishers are also overly dependent on selling printed textbooks to governments. During the period from June 1 to August 31, 2021, entrepreneurs and innovators in Africa can pitch their ideas on the African Publishing Innovation Fund website:www.apinnovation.fund. Final winners will be chosen by the African Publishing Innovation Fund Committee.

Misr Company for Sound, Light, and Tourism Development on Tuesday announced summer showtimes for light shows at the Pyramids, Abu Simbel, Karnak, Philae, and Edfu. The company’s executive managing director, Mohamed Abdel Aziz, said that the show will beginning running on June 1, starting at the Pyramids and Abu Simbel at 7:30 pm and at Edfu, Karnak, and Philae at 7 pm. Abdel Aziz added that the company adheres to all COVID-19 precautionary measures, and will enforce wearing face mask, social distancing, and capacity rules in the show spaces. Sound and light shows were launched in various archaeological sites across Egypt beginning in 1960 at the Sphinx of Giza, later opening at Karnak Temple in 1972, Philae in 1985 and finally at Abu Simbel in 2000. During these events, audiences enjoy the light and sound show as they listen to narrators recount the ancient stories behind Egypt’s famous monuments and temples.

The Cairo International Book Fair will start its 52nd session on June 30 and will continue until July 15, after it was postponed from its original date in January. Preparations began early, with the launch of a website for the Cairo International Book Fair and the design of a site for the exhibition as part of the with the Egyptian state plans for technological transformation. The selection of the exhibition’s administrative committee chose writer Yahya Haqqi as the person of the exhibition this year. The committee also decided to choose a special character for the Children’s Book Fair for the first time, choosing Abdel-Tawab Youssef. The committee also decided to continue the celebration of the centenary of the writer and translator Tharwat Okasha and the poet Salah Abdel Sabour, while also reprinting several of their books.

Egypt on Monday rejected statements from Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed regarding Addis Ababa’s desire to build dozens of dams across various parts of Ethiopia. Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed announced Sunday that his country will build more than 100 small and medium sized dams in different regions of Ethiopia during the upcoming fiscal year. The official Ethiopian News Agency quoted Abi Ahmed as saying that this is the only way to resist any forces opposed to Ethiopia. Ethiopia started constructing the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on the Blue Nile River, one of the tributaries to Nile River, in 2011. Egypt and Sudan say they want a legally binding agreement on filling and operating the GERD, while Ethiopia is trying to evade a binding agreement.

Egypt’s Health Ministry on Monday confirmed 984 new coronavirus cases, down from 1,007 the day before. It also announced 49 deaths and 780 recovered cases. There have now been a total of 262,650 confirmed cases, 15,096 deaths, and 192,112 recovered cases reported in the country. A country-wide partial lockdown aimed at curbing cases that has been in place since May 6 ended on Tuesday. The ministry reported in mid-May that it has vaccinated 1.3 million people since its campaign began on January 24, and over five million have registered on the ministry’s website for the jab.

SANTIAGO, June 1 (Reuters) - Chile and Inter Milan midfielder Arturo Vidal is recovering in hospital after contracting COVID-19, the Chilean national team announced on Tuesday. A statement said that the 34-year-old tested positive for the virus after initially being hospitalised with severe tonsilitis. “The medical team of the Chilean national team emphasises that at the request of the player Arturo Vidal, it is announced that he has been diagnosed positive for Covid,” a statement on the Chile national team website said. “And I ask you, please, whoever can be vaccinated to do so!”The 119-time Chile international is certain to miss his country’s FIFA World Cup qualifying match against Argentina on Friday. Chile then face Bolivia in another qualifier on June 9 before kicking off their Copa America campaign with another match against Argentina on June 13.

REUTERSCAIRO - 1 June 2020: The Health Ministry said Monday night that 984 new coronavirus cases were detected, upping the total number of confirmed cases since the outbreak of the pandemic in Egypt to 262,650. In a statement, Spokesman for the Health Ministry Khaled Megahed said 49 patients have died from the virus over the past 24 hours, raising the death toll to 15,096. As many as 780 patients were discharged from isolation hospitals after receiving necessary medical care, taking the number of recovered cases to 192,112 so far, the spokesman said. Dr. Hosny added that the number of patients infected with Black Fungus disease are still limited, ensuring the availability of drugs curing this rare fungal infection. “Egypt has added a lot of medications specialized in curing Black Fungus as well as dealing with Coronavirus,” he said during a scientific webinar discussing the developments of the epidemiological situation of Coronavirus, as well as the black fungus infections.

REUTERS: Bayern Munich striker Robert Lewandowski said the packed soccer schedule over the next few years is a major problem as players will struggle to deliver their best when there is little time for recovery. "So many people forget we're humans, we're not machines, we cannot play every day at the highest level of performance," Lewandowski told The Times in an interview https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/robert-lewandowski-there-is-too-much-football-the-quality-goes-down-fans-get-bored-0d588gddw. "For football and for young players, that will be the big problem, to stay at the top for many years, because now and maybe the next two years, that will be extreme: so many big games." Lewandowski, who will carry Poland's hopes at this summer's European Championship, said it is not only players who will suffer from too many games. It's not possible to stay with this quality on the top with so many games."

CAIRO – 1 June 2021: Egyptian Assistant Foreign Minister Nazih Al-Najari discussed with Saudi Deputy Foreign Minister, Engineer Walid bin Abdul Karim Al-Khuraiji, the latest developments in the region, SPA reported. The two sides tackled - during their meeting on Monday, at the headquarters of the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs- the bilateral relations between the two countries, in addition to issues of common interest.

Brazil hosted the Copa America in 2019 and the World Cup in 2014. Huge protests also shook Brazil during the 2013 Confederations Cup, but Vice President Hamilton Mourao told reporters in Brasilia he did not expect more demonstrations during the Copa America. The last Copa America, held in Brazil in 2019, brought in $118 million in revenue. The Brazilian league was not due to be halted during the Copa America and at least 70 league games are scheduled to be played during the month-long tournament. News reports in Brazil said CBF will be asked to suspend the league for the duration of the Copa.

CAIRO – 31 May 2021: Egypt on Monday condemned the remarks of Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on plans to build several dams in his country, saying Ethiopia continues to show “bad faith” and to “disregard international law rules”. Ahmed on Sunday said Ethiopia plans to construct more than 100 small and medium dams in various regional states during the next new fiscal year. The ministry said Egypt has always recognized the right of all Nile basin countries to establish water projects and exploit the River Nile resources to achieve development. The ministry said Ahmed’s remarks are “nothing but a continuation of the regrettable Ethiopian approach that brushes aside the international law rules that must be applied and that regulates the utilization of the international rivers”. The ministry noted these rules oblige Ethiopia to respect the rights of other riparian countries and to not harm their interests.

LAGOS, Portugal, May 31 (Reuters) - Georginio Wijnaldum is delighted to have been appointed captain of the Netherlands for the European Championship but says the absence of Virgil van Dijk will be felt by the Dutch over the next month. He is big and strong and really has the appearance of a captain,” Wijnaldum said. “It is unbelievable that we have not played at a World Cup or European Championship with the Netherlands for seven years. I was on vacation, but that felt wrong, because during those tournaments I shouldn't be on vacation," Wijnaldum said. After the World Cup in 2014, the atmosphere in the squad was a bit down for a while,” he added.