The Securities and Exchange Commission announced that it had settled fraud charges with the financial firm tied to former president Donald Trump’s Truth Social platform, Street Insider reported. The SEC had accused Digital World Acquisition Corporation (DWAC), a special purpose acquisition company, of making material misrepresentations in forms it filed with the SEC as part of its initial public offering and its proposed merger with Trump Media & Technology Group Corp (TMTG), which Mr Trump founded. DWAC had misled both the SEC and investors when it failed to disclose that it had formulated a plan to acquire and was pursuing the acquisition of TMTG. Special purpose acquisition companies are meant to identify and acquire operating businesses. But the SEC said in the forms DWAC filed to support its IPO in September 2021, neither it nor its officers had said it had discussions with any target companies before its IPO. But the SEC’s order found that the person who would become DWAC’s chief executive and board chairman, along with other people, had extensive special purpose acquisition company meetings with Mr Trump’s company, and that the executive had pursued talks with TMTG for another special purpose acquisition company he created. In turn, the SEC called DWAC’s Form S-1 false and misleading. “DWAC failed to disclose its discussions with TMTG and failed to disclose a material conflict of interest of its CEO and Chairman,” Gurbir S Grewal, the director of the SEC’s enforcement division. “In the context of a SPAC – a ‘blank-check’ entity without business operations – these disclosure failures are particularly problematic because investors focus on factors such as the SPAC’s management team and potential merger targets when making financial decisions.” The SEC said that DWAC violated antifraud provisons of security laws. It had previously announced that it would pay an $18m settlement in the event it closes a merger transaction and it would sign a cease and desist order. Last month, federal authorities arrested Michael Shvartsman, Gerald Shvartsman and Bruce Garelick and the three were named in an unsealed federal indictment. The all pleaded not guilty to insider dealing at a court in New York City this month. Read More Truth Social’s merger partner reaches $18m settlement with SEC

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A month ago, Pep Guardiola considered the prospects of the player who had made most appearances for him as a full-back and concluded he could not play full-back in a Pep Guardiola team. Or not this team and this system, anyway. “He cannot do it,” Guardiola said. And perhaps that, for Kyle Walker, would have been that, the beginning of the end, a player whose time at Manchester City was ended by a tactical shift that rendered him redundant. Since then, however, Walker has started four of City’s last five games and subdued Gabriel Martinelli in a title decider. In the other biggest match of City’s season so far, he could be the specialist selected for another unenviable task: halting Vinicius Junior, the scorer in last season’s Champions League final, the scourge of Trent Alexander-Arnold. He has the pace – “he will be the fastest in the room at 60,” Guardiola said – to stand out but Walker is an anomaly in other respects. He is the only senior specialist full-back left in City’s squad. They have knocked a player they own, and one who felt the definitive Guardiola full-back, out of the Champions League, after loaning Joao Cancelo to Bayern Munich. But then the definition of a Guardiola full-back has altered over his managerial career. He is indelibly associated with passing midfielders and false nines, but his willingness to experiment, reinvent and revolutionise has been most apparent on either side of the defence, as the six types of Guardiola full-back show. 1. The attacking full-back So far, so conventional? Perhaps not quite. Guardiola may be a trailblazer even there, an advocate of ultra-attacking full-backs when many another manager first looked for solidity in the back four. His Barcelona pairing of Maxwell and Dani Alves could overlap while his midfielders dominated possession. Alves reached double figures in assists in La Liga in three successive seasons for Guardiola, peaking with 15 in 2010-11. Had Jesus Navas opted to stay at City in 2017, it would have been as the second-choice right-back, with Guardiola taking a winger and converting him into a full-back. 2. The full-back as midfielder Given the Bundesliga’s emphasis on pressing and quick transitions, Guardiola became more concerned about counter-attacks during his time at Bayern Munich. It was one reason why he revisited football’s past and formations from the game’s history; either the 2-3-5 used from the end of the 19th century or the W-M system that was invented in the 1920s. Instead of getting his full-backs to overlap, he got them to come infield, to play as old-fashioned wing-halves, taking up positions in front of the centre-backs. It helped that Philipp Lahm and David Alaba had the skillsets to play as midfielders; indeed, Guardiola would often use Lahm, with his footballing intellect, ability to take the ball under pressure and find a teammate, as an actual midfielder. Cancelo has been a variant on the theme at City: a midfielder earlier in his career, he has come infield – most effectively from left-back – and his more ambitious range has made him a playmaker from the base of the midfield. Whereas Rodri, the actual holding midfielder, was more of a metronome, alongside him, Cancelo tried the defence-splitting pass. 3. The midfielder as full-back A reason why Guardiola’s squads tend to feature relatively few out-and-out full-backs and why he can be picky when buying them is that few seem to meet his demands. They tend to include having the ability on the ball of midfielders; perhaps it is unsurprising some actually are midfielders. Joshua Kimmich was a case in point for Bayern. At City, first Fabian Delph and then Oleksandr Zinchenko were moved from midfield to full-back – the Ukrainian was more of a left winger or a No. 10 – with both directed to play the half-back role, to double up as the second defensive midfielder in possession. It has become a more permanent shift, at club level anyway, for Zinchenko, but when Delph went to Everton he reverted to being a midfielder. Kimmich has the ability to operate in a host of roles but is now established at the heart of Bayern’s midfield. Guardiola’s most extreme example of the midfielder as a full-back, albeit a brief one, was when Bernardo Silva spent a couple of games playing as an auxiliary left-back. 4. The defensive full-back It wasn’t how Walker was described when he joined City. He had spent 2016-17 as a flying wing-back for Mauricio Pochettino’s Tottenham. Guardiola decided his extreme pace was better deployed as an insurance policy, as the man to stop the counter-attacks and as the counterpart to the left-backs, whether Cancelo, Delph or Zinchenko, who were directed into midfield. In effect, Walker was often the right of three centre-backs, though that arguably led to another evolution. 5. The centre-back as full-back When Cancelo was exiled and Walker benched, it felt as though Guardiola was abolishing the notion of the full-back altogether. He has fielded teams featuring five players – including Rodri – who operated at centre-back for their countries in the World Cup. It helps that a manager obsessed with the Cruyffian idea of a left-footed centre-back to open up passing angles in the build-up has two, each accomplished in possession, in Nathan Ake and Aymeric Laporte. Ake has proved particularly accomplished in a hybrid role: half centre-back, half left-back. Manuel Akanji has been the other unexpected beneficiary of Guardiola’s change in thinking this season. If the Switzerland international had been positioned on what became the right of three, he played as an out-and-out right back against Bayern Munich, charged with halting Leroy Sane, and then as a pure defensive left-back against Arsenal, subduing Bukayo Saka. It was as though the purist in Guardiola had gone full pragmatist, looking for a player who was big, quick, defensively diligent and reliable, almost regardless of his ability on the ball. 6. The centre-back as full-back and midfielder If Cancelo felt the man who gave City an added dimension in the past, now John Stones is. If much of Guardiola’s tactics since leaving Barcelona has been a quest to find someone who is both the fourth defender and the second holding midfielder, the tweak this year was to reinvent Stones from a centre-back to a right-back who moved alongside Rodri in possession. Then, against Bayern, came another twist: Stones started as a centre-back but stepped forward, leaving Ruben Dias, Ake and Akanji to form a back three behind him. Stones’ extraordinarily high pass completion rates makes him dependable in possession, while having the defensive nous. He has often been preferred to his friend Walker. But perhaps the prospect of Vinicius will prompt Guardiola to pick Stones as a conventional centre-back and Walker as an old-fashioned right-back. Read More Why Man City vs Real Madrid is the ‘real’ Champions League final Pep Guardiola ready to stare down his managerial nemesis once again Is Real Madrid vs Manchester City on TV? Kick-off time, channel and how to watch Champions League semi-final Ex-England boss Fabio Capello labels Manchester City ‘the best team in world’ Man City not motivated by revenge against Real Madrid says Guardiola Real Madrid handed Luka Modric fitness boost ahead of Man City clash

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Lewis Hamilton fears he will start Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix outside of the top 10 following a disheartening day in practice for the British driver and his Mercedes team. As Max Verstappen predictably set the pace for Red Bull with a practice double at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya, Hamilton finished only 11th, more than six tenths of a second back. Home favourite Fernando Alonso raised hope that he could challenge Verstappen and his all-conquering Red Bull team after he finished second for Aston Martin, just 0.170 seconds back. George Russell was eighth in the other Mercedes. Before stepping into his cockpit this weekend, Hamilton admitted that his team’s much-anticipated upgrade, which made its debut in Monaco a week ago, had not provided the magic fix he was hoping for. And on his new machine’s second outing at a track where the Silver Arrows said they would obtain a greater understanding of their upgrades, the evidence suggests they are no closer to taking on the mighty Red Bull, or leapfrogging rivals Aston Martin and Ferrari. Indeed, Mercedes might have fallen further down the pecking order, with Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg, Alpine’s Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly, and the Alfa Romeo of Valtteri Bottas all above the seven-time world champion in the order. Asked about his prospects for qualifying on Saturday, Hamilton said: “From the pace that I had today it will be a struggle to get into the top 10. It is not going to be easy, that is for sure. “We are fighting as hard as we can. It was a difficult day getting on top of the tyres. The car feels… like the car. Hopefully we can make some changes overnight. “It is impressive to see the improvements that everyone has made around us – if you look at the Alpines, and you can also see the Aston Martin is right behind the Red Bull which is impressive.” Hamilton said after May’s Miami Grand Prix that he was “counting down the days” for the upgrade he hoped would propel him back to the front. But there appears no end in sight to his 30-race losing streak. Verstappen, 39 points clear in his pursuit for a third successive title, has been in a class of one for the past 18 months and his dominance continued on Friday. A day after he made the ominous prediction that Red Bull could win all 16 remaining races this year, Verstappen finished seven tenths faster than anyone else in the opening running before returning to the top of the timesheets for the day’s final action. Alonso however, lingers with intent. His home race this weekend marks the 10th anniversary of his 32nd and last win in the sport. However, the Spaniard, 41, is enjoying a career resurgence following his transfer from Alpine to Aston Martin, finishing on the podium at five of the first six races. “Every time I have come to Barcelona I have been told it has been five years since I last won, and then seven years, and now it is 10,” said Alonso. “But it doesn’t feel that long to me. Last year we saw how much Mercedes improved during the season, and they won in Brazil with George. There will be an opportunity around the corner and we have to be there to take it.” Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Max Verstappen sets the pace again but little to cheer for Lewis Hamilton Lewis Hamilton toils in 12th as Max Verstappen and Red Bull dominate in Spain Fernando Alonso: Hamilton can win eighth title but Verstappen can break records