Latest news with #finalists
New York Times
5 days ago
- General
- New York Times
Faizan Zaki, Last Year's Runner-Up, Is a Favorite to Win This Year's Spelling Bee
For the past year, Faizan Zaki, 13, had a schedule that would rival that of professional athletes. He trained five to six hours a day on weekdays and seven to eight hours on weekends. His reps were words. Lots and lots of words. As last year's runner-up, he is a favorite to win this year's Scripps National Spelling Bee. And he has never studied harder, he said confidently hours before he was set to take the stage Thursday evening. The seasoned speller from Plano, Texas, was the only 2024 finalist who advanced to the 2025 finals. 'A lot of people are looking to me to beat what I got last year,' he said over the phone. He took a bit of a different approach in preparing this year, to increase his speed and improve his vocabulary. Once he got home from school, he would open the dictionary and look for words he hadn't seen before. He'd keep track of them in a document, focusing on the definition and spelling of each word. This year, Faizan also studied specifically for the spell-off, the final tiebreaking round that cost him a win last year. In the spell-off, finalists have 90 seconds to spell as many words from a shared list of 30 as possible. Bruhat Soma defeated Faizan last year, spelling 29 words correctly to Faizan's 20 words. The spell-off was required to end the contest last year. This year, the rules have been amended so that the spell-off is optional if judges deem the contest has gone on for too long. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Ten finalists in News & Star's 'Best Chippy 2025' award revealed
THE ten finalists in the News & Star's 'Best Chippy 2025' award have been revealed. These finalists have been chosen by News & Star readers after a week of online nominations, which started on Monday, May 19, and concluded on Saturday, May 30. The ten finalists who will all be in the running to be crowned News & Star 'Best Chippy Bar 2025' are: Caddy's Fish and Chips, Newtown Road, Carlisle Central Chippy, Central Avenue, Carlisle CJ's Chip Shop, High Street, Wigton Cross Quays Chip Shop, King Street, Maryport Dante's Fish and Chips, Shady Grove Road, Carlisle Fontanas, London Road, Carlisle Morton Fryer, Stonegarth, Carlisle Paolo's Fish and Chips, Denton Street, Carlisle Superfish, Workington, Carlisle The Dalston Fryer, Dalston, Carlisle News & Star readers will now be able to vote for their favourite finalist by picking up a copy of the daily newspaper between Monday, June 2, and Sunday, June 14. In addition, we will be highlighting the shortlisted chip shop in our competition in the News & Star. Each of the establishments will be featured over ten issues. After this final voting stage has concluded, the winner will be crowned as the News & Star's 'Best Chippy 2025' during the week commencing Monday, June 23.
The Sun
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Sun
Britain's Got Talent's full list of finalists revealed after tense last semi-final and Golden Buzzer fix row
THE FULL list of finalists on Britain's Got Talent has finally been revealed after a tense semi-final. The last live show before the forthcoming ITV grand finale of the talent variety competition was filled with controversies. 8 8 8 Ten acts have made it through to the highly-anticipated final show of Britain's Got Talent. For the first time, all of the performers will face the public vote after a number of Golden Buzzers sent contestants straight through. The Blackouts Olly Pearson, Jasmine Rice, Joseph Charm, and magician Harry Moulding were the acts to receive the five golden buzzers. The acts who won each of the semi-final shows were Vinnie McKee, Stacey Leadbeatter, Ping Pong Pang and Hear Our Voice. Eight-year-old singer Binita Chetry was the last artist announced to win the public vote. This comes as the long-running variety competition was engulfed with controversy over the 'biggest set up ever. ' Harry Moulding claimed that he was "going to create a special moment of real magic for one person" at the start of his act. The performance was full of incredible tricks which involved pop star references and predictions before the live show. One contributor - who was also named Harry - appeared in a pre-recorded VT that was filmed in Paris. His girlfriend Jess was sat in the audience and she was 'randomly' chosen by the magician to come onto the stage. At the end of the clip, Harry miraculously appeared in front of Simon Cowell, Alesha Dixon, Bruno Tonioli, Amanda Holden and KSI. He got down on one knee and popped the question to his partner, who tearfully accepted. After KSI chose to send the act straight through to the final with his Golden Buzzer, droves of viewers took to social media as they claimed the show was 'rigged'. Writing on X - formerly known as Twitter - one fan fumed: "Cowell said this boring idiot is the frontrunner - so if he wins (despite everyone watching losing the will to live) you'll know that this trashy, s***** programme is fixed." Full list of BGT 2025 finalists THIS is the full list of finalists who will perform at the grand finale of the 2025 series of Britain's Got Talent Vinnie McKee The Blackouts Stacey Leadbeatter Olly Pearson Ping Pong Pang Jasmine Rice Joseph Charm Hear Our Voice Harry Moulding Binita Chetry A second claimed: "That was either an amazing magic trick or there was some absolute collusion going on there. Decent act but had to have been set up somehow." "What the f*** do they expect him to do for the final now?? Biggest fix ever, magic my bloody a***," furiously wrote someone else. As a fourth added: "Utterly rigged and the trick itself was too grand and ridiculous it shouldn't even be called magic. I know exactly how he did it, it was rigged." 8 8 8 8
CTV News
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CTV News
Two northeastern Ont. country music artists compete
Two of the four finalists in a new national competition to find the next big country music star are from northeastern Ontario. Eric Taschner reports.
Daily Mail
19-05-2025
- Sport
- Daily Mail
Revealed - the favourites to win Premier League's final-day Champions League shootout, the one thing Newcastle must do this summer and Arsenal's fatal flaw: Things we learned
The title winner and relegated trio may have been decided long ago but at least we head into the final week of the season with a sense of jeopardy. Champions League qualification remains up in the air for a number of teams, with all eyes now diverting to midweek as beaten FA Cup finalists look to wrestle back some control against on Tuesday.
