Transgender lawmaker ‘doesn’t know what a woman is,’ White House says after dig at Trump firings
The White House brushed aside remarks made by Rep. Sarah McBride, D-Del., to a reporter alleging that Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard would be the next Cabinet official to leave the administration because President Donald Trump “only fires women.” “Rep. McBride doesn’t know what a woman is,” White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said of McBride, a biological male who identifies as a woman. McBride speculated to MeidasTouch reporter Pablo Manríquez that Tulsi Gabbard will be the next Cabinet member on President Donald Trump’s chopping block. In separate interviews, Manríquez asked McBride and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., who they believed would be next to be fired. Both said it would not be a man. TRUMP FIRES TWO DEMOCRATIC COMMISSIONERS ON CIVIL RIGHTS ENFORCEMENT AGENCY AS WHITE HOUSE TARGETS DEI The remarks come amid a shakeup in the Trump administration after Trump announced the dismissal of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Attorney General Pam Bondi within a span of four weeks. On Monday, Department of Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer resigned amid allegations of misconduct toward staffers. “All of them deserve to be fired,” McBride quipped. “I’m supporting impeachment of Pete Hegseth because, obviously right now, we are engaged in a reckless war of choice that he was a primary driver of. “But we know this president,” McBride added. “He only fires women, so my guess is Tulsi Gabbard.” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., echoed McBride’s sentiment when asked the same question by Manríquez. “Is he out of women?” Ocasio-Cortez asked. “Because that seems to be his pattern right now.” TRUMP CABINET NOMINEES, APPOINTEES TARGETED WITH ‘VIOLENT, UNAMERICAN THREATS’ She went on to say that Trump “seems to only have the capability to fire female secretaries.” In response to a follow-up question about the “clownish behavior” of War Secretary Pete Hegseth and FBI Director Kash Patel, Ocasio-Cortez claimed that what Patel has done is “a thousand times worse” than what other officials have done. Neither Manríquez nor Ocasio-Cortez gave specific examples of misconduct by either man. Patel has filed a $250 million defamation lawsuit against The Atlantic over reported allegations that he is a heavy drinker and that it affects his work. Hegseth faced sexual assault and drinking allegations during his confirmation hearings, which he denied, and his tenure at the War Department was rocked by two separate Signal chat leaks in which information about military airstrikes were inadvertently shared with a journalist. While the White House has stood by Hegseth, Democratic lawmakers have demanded his resignation and criticized his handling of the war with Iran. “If you’re a man in the Trump administration, it seems that they reward misconduct,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
Hakeem Jeffries left scrambling after child reporter asks why voters view Democrats so negatively
Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries appeared caught off guard Thursday as children of the Capitol Hill press corps questioned him during an event. The exchange came during a Capitol Hill event during Take Your Child to Work Day, where children of journalists were invited to ask lawmakers questions. The moment quickly stood out as the blunt question from a young attendee cut directly to a broader political challenge Democrats have faced in recent months — voter dissatisfaction and perception issues heading into a high-stakes election cycle. JEN PSAKI CALLS OUT THE ‘WORST’ MEDIA TRAINING ADVICE GIVEN TO DEMOCRATS The first question of the day came from the daughter of CNN’s Manu Raju, and she asked Jeffries, “Why do voters view Democrats so poorly?” The audience quickly began laughing, and Jeffries was stunned, asking the child if her father gave him the question to ask in advance. He clarified that it was “a great question.” “It’s a great question in that — I’m gonna have words with you after this, Manu,” Jeffries said. Jeffries then began to answer the question, diving into a long explanation about growing distrust in institutions across the country. “I think that we exist in an era right now where the American people are understandably frustrated with institutions because far too many people in this country are struggling to live paycheck to paycheck,” he said. “They can’t thrive and can barely survive. And so there’s a frustration with Congress. There’s frustration with institutional political parties, whether that’s Democrats or Republicans. certainly a frustration with the courts, with organized religion, with the media, frustration with institutions of higher education and, of course, frustration with the current president of the United States of America. ‘LAME DUCK’: JEFFRIES RIPS DESANTIS AFTER FLORIDA INVITATION AS REDISTRICTING FIGHT HEATS UP “There’s a great frustration that applies to every organized institution in this country, and Democrats are not immune from that,” he continued. “And we do have a responsibility to continue to convince the American people that, as a party, we’re actually focused on making their life better.” Jeffries, who has served as House Democratic leader since 2023, has been tasked with helping shape the party’s messaging as Democrats work to counter Republican attacks and reconnect with voters frustrated over issues like the economy and cost of living. Concerns about the party’s standing with key voting blocs have surfaced in recent polling and political analysis, underscoring the significance of the question posed during the event. The exchange underscored the messaging challenges facing Democrats as they head into a critical election cycle, with even an unscripted question from a young attendee reflecting broader voter concerns.
WATCH: Trump reveals flashy new color for National Mall’s reflecting pool makeover
President Donald Trump revealed the flashy new color for the National Mall’s reflecting pool will be familiar to most Americans. While speaking with reporters in the Oval Office, he said the reflecting pool’s surface is being repainted in “American flag blue.” When planning the reflecting pool renovation, which Trump said was necessary because it was “filthy,” the president said his original color idea was turquoise, “like in the Bahamas.” But a trusted old pool contractor Trump has worked with in the past convinced him otherwise. “He said, ‘What color would you like, sir?’ I said, ‘Well, what about turquoise like in the Bahamas?’ He said, ‘Well, this is Washington, sir, we can give you turquoise, but why don’t you try … We have a color, it’s called “American flag blue.” I said, ‘That’s the color I like,’” he said. TRUMP TAPS NEW ARCHITECT TO RESHAPE WHITE HOUSE AS $300M BALLROOM BUILD ACCELERATES “He talked me into it very easily.” Fox News Digital reported earlier this month that the president was having the famous Washington, D.C., landmark renovated, saying the Biden administration had neglected it for years. In a post on Truth Social, Trump said he was working with Interior Secretary Doug Burgum on the project, the latest in a series of beautification initiatives targeted by the Trump administration. “Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum and I are working on fixing the absolutely filthy Reflecting Pool between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument,” Trump wrote. TRUMP APPEARS ON WHITE HOUSE ROOF AMID TALKS OF HISTORIC RENOVATIONS “This work was supposed to be done by the Biden Administration, but Sleepy Joe doesn’t know what ‘CLEAN’ or proper maintenance is — The President and Secretary do!” he added. Speaking in the Oval Office this week, Trump held up a photo of the progress on the pool, saying repairs should be finished in the next three weeks. “You’re going to end up with a beautiful, beautiful reflecting pool. The way it’s supposed to be. Much better than it ever was, actually.” TRUMP’S PLAN FOR TRIUMPHAL ARCH MOVES STEP CLOSER TO REALITY He proceeded to poke at the media, saying, “I hope the media can go over and maybe watch them do it because its I think it’s very exciting. “Fraction of the cost and a fraction of the time, and you get a better product than you could ever get the other way, and it’ll be beautiful,” he said. “And, as he said, it will be American flag blue. Any questions?”
Neo-Nazi, Klan ‘Cyclops’ and ‘Sadistic’ biker: Here’s who SPLC allegedly paid in its informant network
The Montgomery, Alabama-based Southern Poverty Law Center was indicted this week on federal fraud charges from a years-long alleged covert paid informant program that Justice Department officials said allocated millions of dollars in donations to a network of informants affiliated with or closely tied to White supremacist and neo-Nazi groups. The 11-count indictment accuses the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) of wire fraud, false statements to a federally insured bank and conspiracy to commit concealed money laundering. According to the Justice Department, the SPLC sent some $3 million to its paid informants between 2014 and 2023, including people affiliated with the United Klans of America, the National Socialist Party of America and the Aryan Nations-linked Sadistic Souls Motorcycle Club, among others. Senior Trump administration officials took aim at the covert paid informant program, which funneled outside donations, at least in part, to informants affiliated with the same extremist groups the SPLC was founded decades earlier to oppose. SPLC FACES BLOWBACK FROM ‘HATE MAP’ TARGETS AFTER DOJ FRAUD INDICTMENT ”As the indictment describes, the SPLC was not dismantling these groups,” acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told reporters Tuesday at a news conference. “It was instead manufacturing the extremism it purports to oppose by paying sources to stoke racial hatred.” The SPLC’s paid informant program funded individuals with ties to the Ku Klux Klan, the National Socialist Party of America and others, including a member of an online “leadership chat group” that helped plan the deadly Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, officials said. Here are the top five most eye-popping paid informants revealed in this week’s indictment. Among the paid informants identified in the indictment is a member of an online “leadership chat group” that Blanche said helped plan the deadly 2017 Unite the Right event in Charlottesville, Virginia. The individual, referred to only as “F-37,” attended the event at the direction of the SPLC and was paid more than $270,000 for his or her work as an informant between 2015 and 2023, according to the indictment. The indictment alleges that the individual shared “racist social media posts and helped organize transportation to events” associated with the deadly rally. The news that the informant helped coordinate logistics, at least in some small part, for the deadly rally while under SPLC supervision is significant, especially given that the aftermath of the event prompted a new influx of donations to the nonprofit. “They lied to their donors, vowing to dismantle violent extremist groups, and actually turned around and paid the leaders of these very extremist groups — even utilizing the funds to have these groups facilitate the commission of state and federal crimes,” FBI Director Kash Patel said. “That is illegal, and this is an ongoing investigation against all individuals involved.” SUPREME COURT CLEARS PATH FOR DOJ TO ERASE STEVE BANNON’S JAN 6 CONVICTION One longtime member of the National Alliance, a White supremacist group tied to multiple violent attacks, profited handsomely from the SPLC in his role as a paid informant. According to the indictment, SPLC paid the National Alliance member more than $1 million over a nine-year period for his role, which included clandestine activities such as breaking into the group’s headquarters to steal some 25 boxes of documents, which he photocopied and distributed to the SPLC. The group appears to have later used those documents to create a report about the National Alliance. After the stolen documents were utilized partly in public, the SPLC allegedly paid another National Alliance member $6,000 to falsely take responsibility for the theft. The National Alliance and the writings of its founder have been closely associated with a litany of violent attacks since the 1980s, including a 1999 multi-state shooting spree targeting minorities and Jewish Americans, and the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. TRUMP ADMIN AGENCIES COORDINATING TO EXPOSE BIDEN ADMIN’S ‘PROLIFIC AND DANGEROUS’ WEAPONIZATION OF GOVERNMENT The SPLC also shelled out more than $140,000 to a paid informant who chaired the National Alliance neo-Nazi group. The indictment accuses the SPLC of funneling tens of thousands of dollars to the individual between 2016 and 2023. At least some of the payments were made at the same time the National Alliance chairman himself was listed on the SPLC’s website as part of its public Extremist File website, a striking and somewhat ironic fact given that the site was warning the public about how dangerous the individual was. Among the paid informants was an “Imperial Wizard” from the United Klans of America, a White supremacist group the SPLC has linked to the 1963 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama, that killed four young girls and injured more than a dozen others. Martin Luther King Jr. described the bombing, which exploded 19 sticks of pre-laid dynamite beneath the steps of a local church, as “one of the most vicious and tragic crimes ever perpetrated against humanity.” It was unclear how much the paid informant received from the SPLC. Separately, SPLC also allegedly funneled money to a Ku Klux Klan member and spouse of an “Exalted Cyclops,” a local Klan leader tasked with overseeing membership, organizing meetings and directing activities. According to the indictment, the informant’s link to the SPLC became known during the KKK chapter’s application to partake in the Adopt-A-Highway program, resulting in the discovery of more than $3,500 in known payments from the SPLC. ‘WHITE SAVIORS” USE OF WHISTLES CAUSES BITTER INTERNAL RIFT INSIDE ANTI-ICE MOVEMENT During the six-year period between 2014 and 2020, the SPLC allegedly sent a staggering $300,000 to one paid informant, F-27, who was an officer in both the National Socialist Movement group and the Aryan Nations-affiliated Sadistic Souls Motorcycle Club. The SPLC also sent some $160,000 to other extremist groups, including the former grand wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. No individuals were named in the indictment, though Blanche noted during a news conference Tuesday that the investigation is ongoing. According to federal prosecutors, the SPLC’s paid informant program began in the 1980s, shortly after its founding
Mike Minogue heads to Mass GOP convention ready to take on Maura Healey: ‘She’s bankrupting our state’
As the Massachusetts GOP gathers for its convention in Worcester this weekend, Airborne Ranger and former Abiomed CEO Mike Minogue appears to have the wind in his sails. With a solid business background, he is positioning himself as the practical problem-solver and outsider, running in the primary against two veterans of the Charlie Baker administration. Minogue, who ran a leading medical devices company for two decades, also benefits from a massive financial advantage over his two GOP rivals, Brian Shortsleeve, former chief administrator of the MBTA, and Mike Kennealy, secretary of Housing and Economic Development under Baker. COMBAT VETERAN TURNED CEO HAS A NEW MISSION: FLIP GOVERNOR’S OFFICE IN BLUE STATE “I am running as the political outsider, and because of that, I have the freedom and the ability to solve problems for our citizens,” Minogue said. “And I think that’s why I’m gonna win, and that’s why we’ve got the most momentum.” Delegates will vote for the party nomination for governor and other statewide offices. According to party rules, candidates need 15% of the vote to qualify for the September primary ballot and 50% of the vote to receive an official endorsement from the party. The convention will be a test of Minogue’s ability to capitalize on a robust infrastructure and fundraising effort against two establishment candidates. Minogue brings a compelling narrative to a campaign in which the GOP will face an uphill battle to unseat incumbent Gov. Maura Healey. He was awarded the Bronze Star for service during Operation Desert Storm and went on to a highly successful career in the medical device industry, ultimately guiding a deal that sold Abiomed to Johnson & Johnson for $16.6B. “Well, I think that the campaign has had a message that it’s time for a new kind of governor. And so since I’m not part of the establishment, I’m coming in with a blueprint as a leader,” Minogue said. “So, first of all, people want a leader that has integrity, common sense and compassion. And they want to elect somebody that has a blueprint to bring accountability, affordability, opportunity and will keep our community safe. And so that’s really my platform. “And on the accountability, the audit that 72% of the voters acted for is something I was able to get involved in as a concerned citizen, and that needs to be done. And, so, that’s something around transparency and holding the one-party system accountable. And as a business person, as the only person who’s run and built the company, as a public company CEO for 19 years, I got audited every three months by an outside agency. That’s the accountability we need.” Minogue brings a unique set of qualifications to the table, which are essential to his campaign message and its resonance with Bay State voters. “I’m not a political establishment person. The other two are. I also have the most experience from West Point to being a combat veteran, to running a business for 19 years, to also having several entrepreneurial private businesses and also being a leader in the nonprofit world around education, helping veterans, helping healthcare,” Minogue said. “So, I bring a skill set. … It’s more about my qualifications, less about policy. “But, again, people want someone to come in who will solve problems, doesn’t worry about the next election. And, so, I’ve got the most energy. I have more cash on hand, in fact, two times the cash on hand than the incumbent Governor Healey. And I am going to stop the overspending, the overtaxing and the overregulating because, as a business person, I know how to do that.” Massachusetts has long been dominated by the Democratic Party, except when it comes to the governor’s office. In fact, five of the last six governors prior to Maura Healey were Republicans. Nonetheless, the GOP nominee will face a challenge in a state in which only 8% of registered voters are Republicans. DEMOCRAT GOVERNOR AND MAYOR BOOED AT RED SOX HOME OPENER “So, I think what people don’t understand and why I’m gonna be the next governor is Massachusetts is not a blue state or a red state,” Minogue said. “In fact, we have low percentages for both parties, but people here have principles.” “More people say they’re conservative as well than the numbers of the Republican Party, but people also want common sense. We’re a gritty group of people. We started the revolution. We endured in order to drive the British out of Boston in 1776. And that culture is still here. And I love that about it.” Minogue argues that Healey’s energy and fiscal policies have left the state and its business community in a precarious position. “I think the biggest issue with Governor Healey is two things. One is a failure to be a leader. She hasn’t stepped forward and driven the audit of the legislature that we voted for. In fact, she’s avoiding it,” Minogue said. “The second thing is she hasn’t solved the energy problem. She doesn’t invest in innovation. She keeps investing more and more tax dollars in green energy — wind and solar. And after two decades and over a billion dollars in tax money, we get less than 6% of our energy in Massachusetts from wind and solar. “Meanwhile, we get 20% of our energy from the nuclear energy facility in Seabrook, New Hampshire, that we don’t subsidize. And we have natural gas in America. We’re blessed with it. The pipelines need to come from Pennsylvania or New York. That will lower our energy. That’s safe, reliable, cheaper.” BLUE STATE GOVERNOR DEMANDS PRIVATE AIRLINES STOP PROVIDING ICE FLIGHTS AFTER DEADLY MINNEAPOLIS SHOOTING Minogue argues that Healey does not have a plan to address the exploding state budget, which is particularly feeling the pinch from skyrocketing health care costs. “So, first thing is the overall budget, $63 [billion]. Then I would drill in to the healthcare budget, which is 54% of our budget. It’s around $34 billion,” Minogue said.
House Republican would ‘100%’ leave the GOP if red state changed primary rules
A congressman in a competitive district in Pennsylvania said he’d leave the Republican Party if his state conducted open primary elections. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., a moderate who has bucked party lines on some of President Donald Trump‘s key initiatives, including voting against the One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act, is seeking re-election in a purple district he has controlled for eight years. Fitzpatrick shared in an interview with Punchbowl News’ Jake Sherman and Anna Palmer his “disdain for ideologues and partisans” and said it was “ignorant to subscribe to a party.” “Countless people go to the floor saying I really want to vote for this, but I got to worry about my primary,” Fitzpatrick said. “It’s killing our country. It’s killing good policy, and we got to fix that.” NEW POLL REVEALS HOW PENNSYLVANIA DEMS FEEL ABOUT FETTERMAN BUCKING HIS PARTY Sherman asked why he does not just run as an independent. Fitzpatrick said his state has a closed primary, meaning only registered party voters can vote in primaries, which he deemed a disadvantage. If Pennsylvania’s primary system were open, Fitzpatrick said he would “100%” leave the GOP. “But you can run as an independent,” Sherman asked. “There’s some way to do it, isn’t there?” Fitzpatrick said it wasn’t possible in Pennsylvania. FETTERMAN RECEIVES NO SUPPORT FOR RE-ELECTION FROM PENNSYLVANIA HOUSE DEMOCRATS: REPORT “Do you want to forfeit your right to vote in 50% of elections?” Fitzpatrick said, referring to what would happen if voters registered as Independent. Fitzpatrick also mentioned that he was “upset” when people criticized Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., who has often voted with Republicans on key issues. Fetterman has been vocal about his criticism of his Democratic colleagues, such as their strategy to shut the government down to push for healthcare negotiations last fall. In the 119th Congressional legislative session, there is only one U.S. House of Representatives member who identifies as an Independent — Kevin Kiley, I-Calif. However, when Kiley was first elected, he ran as a Republican. Meanwhile, in the Senate, there are two Independents — Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Sen. Angus King, I-Maine. While they both maintain an Independent status, both senators caucus with the Democratic Party.
How mutiny at Southern Poverty Law Center triggered leadership collapse
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is facing federal fraud allegations less than a year after a staff mutiny triggered a leadership shakeup that has plagued the organization ever since. The Justice Department has accused the self-styled civil rights nonprofit of using paid informants to infiltrate extremist groups and funneling money to extremist groups — claims the organization is now forcefully disputing. Margaret Huang, who led SPLC, resigned last July after 92% of staff backed a no-confidence vote months earlier, according to The Las Vegas Sun. The center laid off about 80 employees — about 25% of its workforce — in June 2024, the outlet reported. Huang said she stepped down because she could not both care for her parents and meet the demands of the job, while the SPLC said at the time she left after five years at the helm “to prioritize family life.” PRO-POLICE GROUP ASKS DOJ TO PROBE SOROS-BACKED VIRGINIA PROSECUTOR USING BIDEN-ERA LAW ONCE AIMED AT COPS The leadership rupture exposed deep tensions between staff and senior management at the Montgomery, Alabama-based group, which is known for civil rights litigation and racial justice advocacy. Bryan Fair, a constitutional law professor at the University of Alabama and former chair of the SPLC board, stepped in as interim president and CEO following Huang’s departure. Fair has since taken charge of the organization’s response to the Justice Department’s allegations. The group faces federal charges, including wire fraud, bank fraud and money laundering tied to its past use of paid informants. “This use of informants was necessary because we are no stranger to threats of violence,” Fair said in a video message this week, pushing back on the allegations and framing the investigation as politically motivated. “For 55 years, the Southern Poverty Law Center has stood as a beacon of hope, fighting white supremacy and various forms of injustice to create a multiracial democracy where we can all live and thrive. We are therefore unsurprised to be the latest organization targeted by this administration.” He added that the SPLC “frequently shared what we learned from informants with local and federal law enforcement, including the FBI.” EXCLUSIVE: TRUMP-ALIGNED LEGAL GROUP FILES FOIA REQUEST FOR DC CRIME DATA, CITING ALLEGED MANIPULATION “We will vigorously defend ourselves, our staff and our work,” Fair said. Huang’s high-profile departure marked the latest leadership turmoil at the SPLC. The organization underwent a major upheaval in 2019 when it fired co-founder and chief trial counsel Morris Dees and removed him from its board, according to the SPLC, triggering a broader restructuring. That overhaul led to Huang becoming the organization’s first permanent president and CEO under a new leadership model, according to the SPLC. Huang currently serves as a senior advisor at the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, a coalition of civil rights organizations. Dees’ dismissal followed internal allegations of misconduct and workplace culture concerns, including claims of racial discrimination and harassment, according to multiple reports. He was not charged with any crime. Dees co-founded the SPLC in 1971 with civil rights attorney Joseph Levin Jr., while civil rights leader Julian Bond served as its first president. Fox News Digital has reached out to the SPLC and the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights for comment.
LIVE: Real Betis vs Real Madrid – La Liga
blinking-dotLive MatchLive Match, Follow our live build-up, with full team news coverage, before our text commentary stream as Real chase Barcelona. Published On 24 Apr 202624 Apr 2026 Click here to share on social media share-nodes Share googleAdd Al Jazeera on Googleinfo Adblock test (Why?)
Five games to go: The Premier League’s unpredictable season turns again
This was supposed to be Arsenal’s title. For 200 days, it looked like it would be. But Wednesday night, Erling Haaland scored his 35th goal of the season after five minutes at Turf Moor, and Manchester City went top of the Premier League for the first time since October. Arsenal’s 200-day lead was gone, just like that, to a team that three weeks ago looked like they had run out of steam. I am a Manchester United supporter. I have no dog in this fight. So honestly, watching this title race from the outside has been one of the most entertaining things the Premier League has produced in years. Not because the football has always been brilliant. Because it really has not. But because absolutely nothing has gone the way anyone expected. Arsenal were supposed to win this! The title felt done. Football journalists were already writing the “Arsenal end the wait” pieces and filing them for publication on whatever Sunday it became official. Then Bournemouth beat them at home. Then they lost at the Etihad to goals from Rayan Cherki and Erling Haaland. Then last night, City beat Burnley, and Arsenal’s 200-day stint at the top was over. Now they have no tie-breaker advantage. If the two clubs finish level on points, goal difference and goals scored, City win the title because they have won more points in the head-to-head matches this season. Arsenal hold none of the cards. It’s a case of who blinks first, and I think Arsenal will blink. Mikel Arteta has taken Arsenal close, and he deserves some credit for that. But his performative coaching on the sideline, his cringeworthy “tricks” in training, they point to a man feeling the pressure. He’s so worked up, I think it’s translating to the pitch. Advertisement The Chelsea disaster … While the title race has been the main event, Chelsea have been providing the most genuinely extraordinary sideshow in Premier League history. Three managers in 16 months. Some 2 billion pounds ($2.7bn) spent on players. Seventh in the table. And my personal favourite stat of the entire season: five consecutive league games without scoring, the first time that has happened to Chelsea since 1912. Their most recent manager, Liam Rosenior, was sacked this week. He had been in the job for 106 days on a six-and-a-half-year contract. He is perhaps best remembered for a news conference in January where he explained that the word “manage”, split into two, gives you “man” and “age” and that, therefore, management means “ageing men”. He aged extremely quickly. He is now 41 and unemployed. The week he was sacked, Chelsea’s parent company published accounts showing operating losses of 689 million pounds ($930m) over three years. That is a loss of 629,000 pounds ($850,000) every single day. For three years. At a football club that cannot beat Brighton. There is a serious point buried in the Chelsea comedy. Spending money without a coherent plan is not a strategy. The clubs who disrupted the established order this season, Bournemouth above all, did it through organisation and intelligence. Bournemouth sold their five best players for a combined 250 million pounds ($338m) in 18 months. Their manager, Andoni Iraola, adapted, rebuilt and is still on course to finish in the top half while playing some of the most attractive football in the country. Bournemouth beat Arsenal at the Emirates. They beat Liverpool at Anfield. Chelsea spent many times their budget and could finish below them. When did it turn? If I had to pick one result that changed everything, it would be Southampton beating Arsenal in the FA Cup quarterfinal. Southampton were relegated the previous season. It did not cost Arsenal the title by itself. But it was the first moment where you looked at Arsenal and thought: Something is not quite right here. The composure, the belief, the ability to handle big moments and it wobbled. Once that wobble is visible, every subsequent result gets filtered through it. The Bournemouth home loss felt worse because of Southampton. The City defeat felt worse because of Bournemouth. And now with five games left and City top on goal difference, the whole thing looks like a slow unravelling that started on that day. Five to go! City have Everton away, Brentford at home, Bournemouth away, Crystal Palace at home and Villa at home on the final day. Arsenal have Newcastle at home, Fulham at home, West Ham away, Burnley at home and Crystal Palace away on the final day when they will face a club whose best player, Eberechi Eze, left for Arsenal in the summer and will be returning to the stadium where his career was made. Advertisement Arsenal also have the Champions League semifinal against Atletico Madrid to get through. City have no European football. They are rested, they are focused and Haaland has 35 goals this season with five games still to play. I said at the start of this that Arsenal were going to bottle it. I said it in February when they were nine points clear, and people were not particularly happy about it. I stand by it. The momentum, the tiebreakers, the fixture congestion and I think the mentality – all of it points towards City. But I have been watching this league for 30 years, and I have learned one thing above everything else: The Premier League will find a way to surprise you. The season that looked decided in December is never decided in December. The team that looks unbeatable in April sometimes loses to Bournemouth on a wet Tuesday night and never quite recovers. It happened to Arsenal. Maybe it happens to City too. Five games. Everything to play for. Come back and tell me I was wrong. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance. Adblock test (Why?)
Chornobyl at 40: Settlers and horses survive Russian drones, contamination
Oslyak had just finished a night shift at ChNPP on April 25, and had returned to Pripyat and their cosy apartment, with its wall rugs and soft lighting typical of functional Soviet style. He slipped into bed next to Nikitina and fell into a deep sleep. At 1:23am, explosions rang out across the night sky. The city stirred in the night, and some residents woke to the blasts and an unfamiliar light on the horizon, but Nikitina and her husband remained asleep. In the plant, molten fuel burned through layers of concrete and steel towards water beneath the reactor, threatening an even greater explosion. Firefighters and workers responded, unaware of the danger, climbing onto the roof and into the wreckage as radiation surged beyond levels that humans can handle. Two Chornobyl plant workers died that night as a result of the initial explosion, and a further 28 personnel and emergency workers called to the site would die in the following weeks as a result of acute radiation poisoning. But in Pripyat, as Nikitina woke on the morning of April 26, everything seemed normal. It was Saturday, and while many plant workers were off, shops were open, and, as was the norm in the Soviet Union, children went to school. Neither she nor her husband was scheduled to work that day, but as they left the apartment for a stroll, they noticed multiple sealed vehicles loaded with heavy equipment moving through the city towards the ChNPP. They thought back to their university classes, where they had been taught what would happen if a reactor were damaged. It had been presented as such an unlikely scenario that, at the time, she said it felt almost like an old wives’ tale. Yet, they agreed that these signs had all the hallmarks of a major incident, so the couple and their child hunkered down in their apartment and made sure all the windows were tightly closed as a precaution. The morning of April 27, they woke to temporary evacuation orders blaring from loudspeakers mounted on trucks and police cars. Residents were told to gather at collection points near their buildings as there had been an incident at the ChNPP, while municipal services began distributing iodine tablets to the inhabitants of Pripyat to protect their thyroids from radiation exposure. The authorities did not tell them how severe the incident was, and they were advised to pack enough food and clothes for just three days. Before they were about to leave their apartment for evacuation, her husband received a call from the local authorities: He was needed at the plant and was told to stay behind. Nikitina recalls the moment she stood on the warm spring day, waiting with her son to board a bus. She said, although the roughly 49,000 residents of the city were evacuated in an orderly manner, she has realised in hindsight the extreme dangers they were exposed to, standing in dresses, shorts and light clothing, unaware they were immersed in a radioactive plume filled with radionuclides and aerosols. Nikitina and her son were first evacuated to Ivankiv, a town roughly 50km (30 miles) south of Pripyat and about 90km (56 miles) north of Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital. After Soviet authorities admitted on April 28 that a disaster had occurred, news of its severity spread among the evacuees. A panicked Nikitina began desperately washing her and her son’s clothes in their temporary lodging provided by the authorities, trying to remove any contamination. As she laid them out to dry on a balcony, a dosimetrist visited her, only to discover that they contained dangerous levels of radiation and ordered them to be immediately removed and destroyed. Adblock test (Why?)