Both reveling in midweek EFL Cup successes, Newcastle United and Arsenal collide in the 12:30 PM Premier League kickoff on Saturday at St. James’ Park.
On Wednesday night, the Magpies got the better of a much-changed Chelsea 2-0 to make their first quarter-final of the season, while Mikel Arteta’s men were routine 3-0 victors over Preston North End. However, Arsenal’s defensive solidity has been a concern of late, with the Gunners shipping multiple goals in four of their last five league games.
Already losing ground in the title race, sitting third in the table with a five-point gap to leaders Manchester City, Arsenal have lost their defensive mean streak, drawing comparisons to the tactics of former manager Jose Mourinho. In contrast, Newcastle must use their EFL Cup victory as a springboard for better Premier League fortunes, having gone five games without a win.
Arteta will be without the injured Gabriel Magalhaes, Martin Odegaard, Riccardo Calafiori, Kieran Tierney and Takehiro Tomiyasu, but Ben White is expected to return to the backline. Newcastle, meanwhile, received a boost with the return of Anthony Gordon from a groin issue, though Jacob Murphy and Callum Wilson remain sidelined.
Despite Newcastle’s home woes of late, the Magpies have proven troublesome opponents for Arsenal, having beaten the Gunners 1-0 at St. James’ Park last year. However, Arteta’s men exacted revenge with a 4-1 thrashing at the Emirates a couple of months later.
With both sides looking to build momentum after their midweek cup victories, this clash of Premier League title challengers promises to be a closely contested affair. While Newcastle will be aiming to end their winless run, our prediction is that Arsenal’s fresher legs could give them the edge in a narrow victory.
Bolivian President Luis Arce on Friday condemned the seizure of three military units by supporters of former President Evo Morales, calling it “an absolutely reprehensible criminal act that is far from any legitimate social claim of the Indigenous peasant movement.”
In a message on the social media platform X, Arce wrote that “the taking of a military unit is a crime of treason against the homeland and an affront to the country’s Constitution.” The Bolivian Armed Forces said “irregular armed groups” had kidnapped military personnel and taken control of the facilities in the center of the country.
The warning came after videos circulated on social media with statements from a military leader who is believed to be detained, confirming the “peaceful” takeover of a regiment in the coca-growing area of Chapare. Authorities have neither confirmed nor denied that he is a member of the Army.
The conflict broke out three weeks ago when Bolivian prosecutors launched an investigation into accusations that Morales fathered a child with a 15-year-old girl in 2016. Since then, Morales has been holed up in the Chapare region, where loyalist coca growers have kept watch to prevent his arrest.
The most critical situation is taking place in the coca-growing region, a political bastion and refuge of Morales, where his followers have surrounded and threatened to take over police and military barracks, demanding the closure of the judicial cases against the former president.
President Arce has avoided sending out soldiers en masse to clear the roads, with opponents accusing the government of showing weakness in dealing with the conflict in the midst of an economic crisis. Morales, a former coca grower, has retained significant support among poor and Indigenous Bolivians despite his resignation in 2019.
The seizure of military facilities by Morales’ supporters represents a dangerous escalation of the political tensions in Bolivia. Arce’s strong condemnation and the Armed Forces’ warning highlight the government’s determination to maintain control and constitutional order amid the ongoing protests.
A legal fight over Elon Musk’s $1 million-a-day voter sweepstakes is back in state court in Pennsylvania, a loss for the billionaire, after a federal judge said Friday that he doesn’t have jurisdiction.
Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner wants to keep his fight to shut down the giveaways in state court, calling it a violation of state lottery laws. Musk had argued that the case belonged in federal court as it involves claims of federal election interference. However, U.S. District Judge Gerald J. Pappert ruled that federal question jurisdiction does not turn on a plaintiff’s motivations in filing suit.
The case now returns to Judge Angelo Foglietta, who will hold a hearing on Monday to consider whether to issue an injunction to stop the sweepstakes. Krasner’s lawyer, John Summers, said they will ask the state judge “to enter an injunction to stop the defendants’ lottery and the defendants’ unfair and deceptive practices.”
Musk’s political organization, which aims to boost Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, has organized the sweepstakes as a way of encouraging people to be registered voters in key battleground states like Pennsylvania. The giveaways have drawn warnings from election law experts that they may violate federal laws prohibiting payments for votes.
Krasner accused Musk and his PAC of running a “dubious lottery” in the tense run-up to Tuesday’s election, suggesting the targeting of Pennsylvania was no coincidence given its importance as a swing state. The case highlights the ongoing legal battles over campaign finance and voter engagement efforts ahead of the crucial 2024 presidential race.
The federal judge’s decision to send the case back to state court represents a setback for Musk, who had sought to have the lawsuit heard in the federal system. The outcome of the state court proceedings will be closely watched as it could determine the fate of Musk’s high-profile voter sweepstakes in the final days before Election Day.
A man faces a felony assault charge after an unprovoked attack on a fellow passenger who was sleeping during a cross-country flight this week, according to authorities.
An FBI agent said Everett Chad Nelson punched the other man repeatedly in the face and head, leaving the man bleeding, before another passenger pulled him off the victim. The attack on a United Airlines flight Monday from San Francisco to Dulls International Airport lasted about a minute.
“Thanks to the quick action of our crew and customers, one passenger was restrained after becoming physically aggressive toward another customer,” United said in a statement. The flight landed safely and was met by paramedics and local law enforcement.
According to an FBI affidavit, Nelson left his seat in the rear of the plane and used a lavatory near the front before attacking the other man, who suffered bruises around his eyes and a gash on the nose. Nelson was moved to a seat near the front of the plane and was watched by the passenger who had stopped the assault. There was no indication that Nelson knew the victim.
A federal magistrate ruled that Nelson should be held in custody until trial, citing the evidence against him and his history of lacking stable employment and residence. The public defender listed as Nelson’s attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Incidents of unruly passenger behavior on planes have remained higher than pre-pandemic levels, with over 1,700 reports of such incidents so far this year. The unprovoked attack on the sleeping passenger underscores the ongoing challenges airlines and law enforcement face in maintaining safety and order on flights.
South Carolina put Richard Moore to death by lethal injection Friday for the 1999 fatal shooting of a convenience store clerk, despite a broad appeal for mercy by parties that included three jurors and the judge from his trial, a former prison director, pastors and members of his family.
Moore, 59, was convicted of killing James Mahoney, the Spartanburg clerk, in September 1999 and sentenced to death two years later. Moore went into the store unarmed, took a gun from the victim when it was pointed at him and fatally shot him in the chest as the victim shot him with a second gun in the arm.
Moore’s lawyers argued his case did not warrant the death penalty, citing his spotless prison record and willingness to mentor other inmates. They also said it would be unjust to execute someone for what could be considered self-defense, and unfair that Moore, who is Black, was the only inmate on the state’s death row convicted by a jury without any African Americans.
However, Republican Governor Henry McMaster refused to grant clemency, saying he had reviewed all the materials submitted by Moore’s lawyers and spoken to the victim’s family. No South Carolina governor has reduced a death sentence, and 45 executions have been carried out in the state since the U.S. Supreme Court allowed states to restart them nearly 50 years ago.
The execution proceeded despite pleas for leniency from three jurors who condemned Moore to death in 2001, his trial judge, a former state prison director, his son and daughter, and several pastors. They all said Moore, 59, was a changed man who loved God and mentored other prisoners after his drug addiction led to the fatal shooting.
“He was not a danger to anyone, and the state eliminated a glowing example of reform and rehabilitation,” the Justice 360 law firm, which represented Moore, said in a statement. “By killing Richard, the State also created more victims. Richard’s children are now fatherless, and his grandchildren will have to grow up without their ‘Pa Pa.'”
Moore’s lawyers argued his original attorneys did not analyze the crime scene carefully and left unchallenged prosecutors’ contention that Moore, who came into the store unarmed, fired at a customer and intended to rob the store. They said no one else on South Carolina’s death row started their crime unarmed and with no intention to kill.
The execution underscores the flaws in South Carolina’s death penalty system, according to the Justice 360 firm, which stated “who is executed versus who is allowed to live out their lives in prison appears to be based on no more than chance, race, or status.” The case has sparked renewed debates over the fairness and application of capital punishment in the state.
Throughout an election campaign, US voters are bombarded with images of the two candidates – speaking from podiums, greeting rally crowds and stepping down aircraft stairs. Here’s a different visual perspective of who they are and where they’ve come from.
Long before they even knew what the White House was… Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are pictured above both aged three.
Decades apart, Democratic presidential nominee Harris spent her early years in Oakland, California, and Republican nominee Trump was raised in the New York borough of Queens.
Harris (left in the left-hand image below) and her sister Maya (centre) were primarily brought up by their Indian mother, Shyamala Gopalan Harris, a cancer researcher and social activist.
Trump’s father Fred Trump was the son of German immigrants and his mother Mary Anne MacLeod Trump was born in Scotland. They enrolled him in the New York Military Academy at age 13.
Harris spent five years at high school in Montreal, Canada, where her mother took up a teaching job at McGill University. She later enrolled in the historically black college, Howard University in Washington DC.
Trump has said his five years at the academy, which began in 1959, gave him military training and helped shape his leadership skills. He later sat out the Vietnam War due to deferments – four for academic reasons and one due to bone spurs.
From an early age, Harris was taught by her mother the importance of the civil rights movement and she attended the annual Martin Luther King Jr Freedom March in Washington in 2004.
After earning a degree from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, Trump became favoured to succeed his father at the helm of the family business.
Harris returned to California, where she rose swiftly to the top of the state’s criminal justice system – taking a job as its attorney general – and used that momentum to mount a successful run for the US Senate in 2016.
At the same time as she entered Congress, Trump was stepping into the White House for the first time, having stunned the world to defeat Hillary Clinton.
Three years later Harris ran a lacklustre presidential campaign, but was picked by the victor of the Democratic race, Joe Biden, to be his running mate. They proved to be the winning ticket, defeating Trump and Mike Pence.
The end of the Trump presidency and the start of the Biden-Harris term were marked by Covid lockdowns, mask mandates and social unrest following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Harris struggled at times to make her mark as vice-president, but found her voice in 2022 when the US Supreme Court ended the constitutional right to abortion.
President Biden was happy for her to become the White House champion for the pro-choice movement.
It was Trump who had made the Supreme Court more conservative, paving the way for the abortion ruling.
During his time in the Oval Office, he also took the US out of the Paris climate accord and took steps to reduce immigration.
Harris’s debut international visit as vice-president was to Guatemala in 2021, as part of the responsibility she was given to reduce the numbers of Latin American migrants reaching America’s southern border with Mexico.
Foreign policy issues that have dominated her time in office include the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, as well as the chaotic US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Trump’s first visit overseas as president was to Saudi Arabia in 2017. Trump advocates isolationist policies that involve disentangling his country from foreign conflicts and promoting American industry.
Harris is married to Doug Emhoff (pictured below), who campaigns regularly on her behalf. She is stepmother – or “Momala”, as she says – to Emhoff’s children from his first marriage, Cole (left) and Ella (right).
Various members of Donald Trump’s family have played roles in his political career, though appearances in the 2024 campaign by his wife, former First Lady Melania Trump, have been limited.
With his first wife, Ivana, Trump had three children: Donald Jr (second left in the lower picture), Ivanka (second right) and Eric (right). He had a daughter, Tiffany (left), with his second wife, Marla Maples. He married his third wife Melania (third left) in 2005, with whom he has one son, Barron.
Harris entered the 2024 presidential race relatively late in the process, replacing Joe Biden who pulled out.
She made history as the first black and Asian-American woman to lead a major party’s presidential ticket, and went on to give a speech at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois.
In the same election, Donald Trump earned the rare distinction of earning a third presidential nomination from his party. He spoke at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin – sporting a bandaged ear after surviving an assassination attempt during the campaign.
Forty-seven Palestinians were killed and dozens injured, most of them children and women, in overnight Israeli bombardment of the central Gaza Strip, the Palestinian news agency WAFA reported Friday.
The attacks occurred in the city of Deir Al-Balah, the Nuseirat camp and the town of Al-Zawayda, it said. The Israeli military said its troops had identified and eliminated “several armed terrorists” in central Gaza and had eliminated “dozens of terrorists” in targeted raids in northern Gaza’s Jabalia area.
The latest violence is part of the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that controls Gaza. The Gaza war began after a Hamas attack on Israel a year ago killed 1,200 people and led to the capture of about 250 hostages.
Israel’s counteroffensive in Gaza has killed more than 42,400 Palestinians, with more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza health officials. Israel says the death toll includes thousands of Hamas fighters. Hamas has been designated a terrorist organization by several countries.
At least 46 Palestinians were killed in Israeli military strikes across the Gaza Strip on Thursday, mostly in the north where one attack hit a hospital, torching medical supplies and disrupting operations, the enclave’s health officials said. Israel’s military has accused Hamas of using the hospital for military purposes, but health officials and Hamas deny the assertion.
The health ministry in Gaza called for international bodies “to protect hospitals and medical staff from the brutality of the (Israeli) occupation.” Medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières said one of its doctors at the hospital had been detained by Israeli forces, and called for the protection of all medical staff facing “horrific violence.”
Chad’s military has been accused of killing “scores” of fishermen in Nigeria while targeting jihadists, days after 40 died in a Boko Haram attack on a military base in Chad, fishermen and anti-jihadist militia told AFP on Thursday.
The Chadian army launched an airstrike pummelling Tilma island in Kukawa district on the Nigerian side of Lake Chad on Wednesday while fishermen were tending to their catch, the sources said. Two anti-jihadist militia assisting Nigerian soldiers said several fishermen were killed in the bombardment.
“The jet mistook the fishermen for Boko Haram terrorists who attacked a military base inside Chad on Sunday,” said Babakura Kolo, an anti-jihadist militia leader. A Chadian general staff officer confirmed the strikes, saying “Boko Haram fighters often blend in with the fishermen and farmers whenever they commit their crimes.”
Most of the fishermen caught up in the aerial attack were from towns on the shores of Lake Chad, said Ibrahim Liman, another anti-jihadist militia. “A large number of fishermen were killed. No one can give an exact number because bodies are still scattered across Tilma,” said fisherman Sallau Arzika.
Chad’s assault, dubbed Operation Haskanite, aims to “hunt down, root out and obliterate the nuisance capability of Boko Haram and its affiliates,” interim Prime Minister Abderahim Bireme Hamid told reporters. The operation is being “personally” directed by President Mahamat Idriss Deby on the ground.
The Lake Chad region’s countless islets serve as hideouts for jihadist groups like Boko Haram, who carry out regular attacks on the countries’ armies and civilians. This latest incident highlights the challenges and risks of anti-terror operations in the remote, contested areas where civilians often get caught in the crossfire.
The Chadian military’s botched air strike, which appears to have mistakenly targeted fishermen, has drawn strong condemnation and raises concerns about the unintended consequences of the counter-terrorism efforts in the volatile Lake Chad basin.
A Nevada jury decided Thursday that a man should serve life in state prison with no chance of parole for breaking into a room at a Las Vegas Strip hotel-casino and killing two Vietnamese tour leaders in 2018.
Julius Damiano Deangilo Trotter, 37, was spared a death sentence by the same state court jury that found him guilty on Tuesday of murder, burglary and robbery in the stabbings of Sang Boi Nghia and Khoung Ba Le Nguyen at the Circus Circus hotel.
Defense attorney Lisa Rasmussen said Trotter and his legal team appreciated the jury’s decision, but that Trotter will appeal his conviction and sentence “as a normal part of the criminal justice system.” Rasmussen acknowledged Trotter had a prior criminal record, but said he also had the support of a loving family.
Nghia, 38, was a mother of three who operated a tour business in Vietnam. Nguyen, 30, was one of her employees. Police said Trotter was found with items belonging to the victims, including a purse, wallets, a cellphone, jewelry and Vietnamese cash.
The jurors heard testimony from Trotter, his relatives and the victims’ family members before issuing their decision to spare Trotter the death penalty. The last person put to death in Nevada prison was in 2006.
A bus carrying university students on a field trip skidded off a road and tipped over in central Sri Lanka on Friday, killing two students and injuring 39 others, officials said.
Police said the accident occurred when the driver lost control of the vehicle on a curve near the town of Badulla in the country’s mountainous tea-growing region, about 330 kilometers (205 miles) north of Colombo, the capital.
Derana television showed residents helping health workers remove the wounded students from the toppled bus. Police and doctors said 39 wounded passengers, including six in critical condition, were admitted to the main hospital in Badulla. Two others were declared dead at the scene.
Deadly bus accidents are common in Sri Lanka and are often caused by reckless driving and poorly maintained roads. The latest incident has once again highlighted the need for improved road safety and transportation regulations in the country.
Authorities have launched an investigation into the causes of the crash. The two fatalities and dozens of injured students are a tragic outcome of what was meant to be an educational field trip for the university group.
