AC Milan’s Fikayo Tomori relishing clash with former team-mate Sandro Tonali
England international Fikayo Tomori has warned Sandro Tonali that friendship will go out of the window when AC Milan and Newcastle head into Champions League battle on Tuesday night. The two men were team-mates last season as Milan made it to the semi-finals of the competition and finished fourth in Serie A, but they will be on opposing sides at the San Siro following midfielder Tonali’s £53million summer switch to St James’ Park. Former Chelsea defender Tomori, 25, admits it will be god to see his former colleague again – but only after the final whistle. He told a press conference: “Obviously it will be nice to see him again. We played a lot of games together. “It will be nice to see him again so soon after he left, but we are professionals. When the game starts, friendships go out of the window. We want to win. “After the game, we can start being friends again. During the game, though, we are not friends.” The Italians will hope for a positive start to the campaign as they attempt to bounce back from Saturday’s 5-1 derby mauling by Inter, the side which dumped them out of the Champions League last season. Tomori was a frustrated by-stander at the weekend as he sat out through suspension following his red card in the 2-1 win at Roma before the international break and is determined to make up for lost time after witnessing a horror show in the wake of three successive league wins. He said: “I was disappointed not to have been able to help my team-mates on the pitch. Watching the match on TV is tough, you can’t help the team. “Tomorrow I’ll be on the pitch, I hope. We’ll try to win and start the group well.” Milan, who received a visit from former player Zlatan Ibrahimovic on Monday morning as they finalised their preparations for the game, are expecting an all-action approach from the Magpies on their return to the competition after a gap of 20 years. Eddie Howe’s men warmed up for the trip to Italy with a narrow 1-0 Premier League win over Brentford, and the Rossoneri are in little doubt as to what will lie ahead. Boss Stefano Pioli said: “[Newcastle] seem like a classic English team to me with physicality, pressure and intensity. “They are very tall and dangerous on the dead ball, without neglecting their quality.” Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Attacking play and big-game wins – Roberto De Zerbi’s first year at Brighton Paul Collingwood backs Zak Crawley to excel in role of England captain Pep Guardiola challenges Man City to win back-to-back Champions League titles
1970-01-01 08:00
EA FC 24 Web App Release Date
EA FC 24 Web App release date is scheduled for Sept. 20 alongside the release of Team of the Week 1.
1970-01-01 08:00
Peru econ minister sees inflation easing to 5.2% in September
LIMA Peru's annual inflation could ease to 5.2% in September, Economy Minister Alex Contreras said in a press
1970-01-01 08:00
EU Braces for Tussle Over 12th Russian Sanctions Package
The European Union is gearing up for a fight over what should be included in its 12th package
1970-01-01 08:00
Attacking play and big-game wins – Roberto De Zerbi’s first year at Brighton
The eyebrows that were raised when Brighton replaced Graham Potter with Roberto De Zerbi have been put firmly in their place over the last 12 months. It was on September 18 a year ago, only 10 days after Potter’s departure for Chelsea, that the Seagulls announced their new boss would be a little-known Italian. Brighton chairman Tony Bloom had identified De Zerbi as his next managerial target some time before after being impressed by his work in Italy with Benevento and Sassuolo, which then continued when he moved to Shakhtar Donetsk. Arriving at Brighton with little English and big boots to fill, it was perhaps not surprising it was seen as a risky move but the only question now is how long the Seagulls will be able to hang onto him. De Zerbi did not win any of his first five games in charge but thumped Potter’s Chelsea 4-1 for his maiden victory and did not look back. Premier League highlights included the double over Chelsea and wins over Liverpool, Manchester United and Arsenal while they also beat Liverpool during a run to the semi-finals of the FA Cup that only ended with a penalty shoot-out loss to United. Brighton eventually finished sixth, securing European football for the first time in the club’s history with a place in the Europa League. And they have picked up where they left off this season, winning four of their opening five matches, including back-to-back 3-1 wins over Newcastle and Manchester United. That is despite again selling a number of their star performers, with Moises Caicedo and Robert Sanchez heading to Chelsea and Alexis Mac Allister to Liverpool. Selling on players and reinvesting the money in potential stars of the future is central to the Brighton model. Marc Cucurella, Yves Bissouma, Leandro Trossard, Ben White and Dan Burn have all departed the Amex Stadium for bigger Premier League names in recent seasons while the likes of Kaoru Mitoma and Evan Ferguson are sure to be on many wishlists. The no-nonsense De Zerbi has clearly had a big impact on the players he has worked with, and Lewis Dunk opened up on the Italian’s methods after regaining his place in the England squad. “Football-wise, since the new manager at Brighton has come in I see football in a completely different way, I picture it in a different way and that is the biggest thing,” he said earlier this month. “Football is not what I thought it was. Just how we play now. The idea of what I did before, I thought it made sense. But when you learn something completely different, you believe in it and this makes sense. “You think, ‘Why didn’t I know this?’ and, ‘Why didn’t I do this before?’ “(I) know every position on the pitch and where they should be. The time they should move and what angles they should give. We see it every day and it makes life simpler.” That attention to detail and precision is at the heart of De Zerbi’s footballing philosophy, with Brighton widely praised for their attacking panache and high-energy game. Balancing trying to take another step forward in the Premier League this season with the demands of European football is a new challenge for De Zerbi but, based on the last 12 months, it would be no surprise if he found the right formula. Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Paul Collingwood backs Zak Crawley to excel in role of England captain Pep Guardiola challenges Man City to win back-to-back Champions League titles Conor Murray: Ireland squad in ‘unbelievable nick’ ahead of South Africa clash
1970-01-01 08:00
Yellen Says Premature to Judge Auto Strike Impact, Wants Win-Win Deal
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said it’s too soon to tell what economic impact there my be from the
1970-01-01 08:00
US homebuilder confidence falls to lowest since April, says NAHB
By Amina Niasse NEW YORK U.S. homebuilder confidence fell for a second month in September, with optimism dropping
1970-01-01 08:00
Mike Greenberg Wants Jets to 'Beg' Vikings For Kirk Cousins Because Zach Wilson 'Is Not an NFL Quarterback'
It was quite a rant.
1970-01-01 08:00
Marilyn Manson pleads no contest to blowing nose on videographer, gets fine, community service
Marilyn Manson has been sentenced to community service and a fine after pleading no contest to blowing his nose on a videographer at a 2019 concert in New Hampshire
1970-01-01 08:00
Is Hunter Biden’s gun case a test for the Second Amendment?
Following a five-year federal investigation, a grand jury has indicted President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden on three charges connected to a gun purchase in 2018, a time period during which the president’s son has admitted to using drugs. Federal law prohibits people who use drugs from buying firearms, but questions surrounding the constitutionality of that law could throw the case into jeopardy following a landmark US Supreme Court decision that opened a wave of litigation under the court’s expansive Second Amendment lens. That’s if the case survives the political maelstrom targeting the Biden family, with congressional Republicans eager to prosecute the president’s son and impeach his father in parallel probes separate from a US Department of Justice special counsel investigation facing GOP pressure. That partisan scrutiny comes as the leading candidate for the 2024 Republican nomination for president faces four sprawling criminal trials of his own, including charges for serious crimes allegedly committed while serving as 45th president. Republican officials and campaigns are eager to draw a false equivalence and dominate airtime with investigations surrounding the younger Biden instead. Ironically, a Supreme Court decision celebrated by Republicans last year may have set a precedent that could protect Hunter Biden from prosecution. The Gun Control Act of 1968 prohibits people who use drugs from possessing firearms, a ban that applies to people who have admitted to using illegal drugs within 12 months before buying a gun, according to the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. Violating that provision could land an offender with a 15-year prison sentence. But the Supreme Court’s decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v Bruen – decided by the court’s six conservative justices – argues that such restrictions be historically consistent with the Second Amendment. As Justice Clarence Thomas wrote, “the government must demonstrate that the regulation is consistent with the Nation’s historical tradition.” The decision created an absurdly high new burden to test the constitutionality of restrictions and other safety measures to combat the proliferation of high-powered firearms and keep them out of the hands of people who could be a danger to themselves or others in the American era marked by daily mass shootings and surging rates of gun violence, analysts and advocates have argued. President Biden has said the decision “contradicts both common sense and the Constitution.” Within a year after that decision, more than a dozen state and federal gun laws have been challenged, with 30 per cent of civil cases and nearly 4 per cent of criminal cases citing the Bruen decision in challenges that have invalidated gun control measures, according to research in Duke Law Journal. This year, federal judges in several cases have ruled that banning someone who uses drugs from owning a firearm is “inconsistent with the Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.” “In short, our history and tradition may support some limits on an intoxicated person’s right to carry a weapon, but it does not justify disarming a sober citizen based exclusively on his past drug usage,” Ronald Reagan-appointed US District Judge Jerry Smith wrote for a federal appeal courts panel in August. “Nor do more generalized traditions of disarming dangerous persons support this restriction on nonviolent drug users.” Hunter Biden is charged with illegally owning a gun as a drug user, and with allegedly lying on a form when he bought the firearm. If convicted, he could face up to 25 years in prison, though it is highly unlikely he would face such a sentence. Jacob Charles, a professor at Pepperdine University’s Caruso School of Law and a constitutional law scholar focusing on the Second Amendment, said Mr Biden’s attorneys likely have a viable Second Amendment case. It might be more difficult to challenge federal law against lying on a firearms form, which is not directly tied to Second Amendment rights, “so it’s possible that an appeals court or the Supreme Court would agree with the defense on both of the questions, and say it’s unconstitutional, and since it’s unconstitutional, you also can’t be punished for lying about the other category,” Mr Charles told The Independent. Essentially: if one count is on unconstitutional grounds, there’s a chance the other counts wouldn’t stand up either. “It’s not always the case that the higher profile the defendant, the more likely you’re going to get Supreme Court review,” he said. “Sometimes it seems to happen lately. But there are other cases that are farther along in the process that are challenging this same law, that if the court really wanted to answer this question, it wouldn’t have to use the Hunter Biden vehicle to do it.” Mr Charles says the case has underscored the “disruptive effects of the Supreme Court’s decision in Bruen” and the chaotic new landscape for the nation’s myriad gun laws, which now have an apparent historical analogy regardless of the urgency for such laws in the first place. This year, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in a major Second Amendment test that further magnifies the chasm between the new historical test and current realities, when justices will hear a case involving a man who possessed firearms and allegedly repeatedly shot at people while subject to a domestic violence restraining order. It is also unclear what evidence prosecutors are reviewing to determine that Hunter Biden was using drugs at the time; those details are publicised in his memoir, in which he describes his struggle with abuse and his relapse in 2018, the year he bought the gun. Mr Biden’s attorney Abbe Lowell believes the case will be tossed out altogether. “The only change that has occurred between when they investigated [this alleged crime] and today is that the law changed,” he told ABC’s Good Morning America on 15 September. “But the law didn’t change in favour of the prosecution. The law changed against it.” ‘I’ve never heard of this charge. Never’ Mr Lowell and others have also questioned the timing of the case, parallel to growing threats of impeachment from far-right members of Congress against President Biden and adjacent investigations from House Republicans seeking criminal prosecutions against the president and his family. “The US Attorney’s Office has known about this for years,” Mr Lowell said. “What changed? Not the facts, not the law, but all the politics that have now come into play.” The younger Biden was prepared to plead guilty to charges stemming from the firearms purchase as well as separate tax-related misdemeanours earlier this year, though a plea agreement appeared to fall apart under scrutiny from a federal judge. Justice Department special counsel David Weiss, who as US Attorney for Delaware has been investigating Hunter Biden for roughly five years, said he would seek a grand jury indictment in the case by the end of September. Mr Weiss was appointed by Mr Trump and initially requested by congressional Republicans to lead a special counsel probe. Following the collapse of that plea deal, Mr Lowell stressed to CBS Face the Nation that Mr Weiss is “a Republican US attorney appointed by a Republican president and attorney general who had career prosecutors working this case for five years looking at every transaction” in which Hunter Biden was involved. “If anything changes from his conclusion,” he added, “the question should be asked, what infected the process that was not the facts in the law?” Outside of the constitutional scrutiny in Mr Biden’s case is the unusual stand-alone charge for lying on a form, which is typically charged in connection with a more serious underlying crime. The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act of 1993 – supported by then-Senator Joe Biden as the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee – made a federal form for firearms purchases a key part of a package of anti-crime legislation. According to prosecutors, Hunter Biden lied on the form when he was asked whether he is an “an unlawful user of, or addicted to, marijuana or any depressant, stimulant, narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance.” But the chance of being prosecuted for lying on that form is exceedingly rare among the millions of background checks performed each year. Within the fiscal year that Mr Biden bought the gun and filled out that paperwork, federal prosecutors received 478 referrals for charges – and filed cases in roughly half of them. Mr Biden likely did receive so-called “special treatment” from federal prosecutors, as Republican officials have claimed. But it was in the opposite direction. His prosecution appears especially more severe than that facing a typical defendant. “Can anyone tell me how many people have been federally indicted for purchasing a gun while dealing with substance abuse issues?” asked Keisha Lance Bottoms, a former senior adviser to President Biden. “I don’t know the answer, but in my over 29 years as an attorney, I have never heard of it.” According to former Justice Department inspector general Michael Bromwich, these kinds of charges simply do not happen. “I’ve been involved in law enforcement both as a prosecutor and a defense lawyer for 40 years. I’ve never heard of this charge being brought. Never,” according to Mr Bromwich, who served as Justice Department inspector general from 1995 to 1999 and previously served as a federal prosecutor in New York. He is currently a senior counsel at Steptoe & Johnson LLP. “I think it’s extremely unusual to bring, if not unprecedented to bring, this set of charges,” he told The Independent. “These charges were brought as a result of the unrelenting political pressure brought by Republicans in Congress to bring a heavy hand down on Hunter Biden as a way of trying to get to Joe Biden, and I think the prosecutor, Mr Weiss … has succumbed to political pressure,” he said. A plea agreement like the one reached this summer “is much more in keeping with what an ordinary prosecutor would do,” according to Mr Bromwich. Should Mr Weiss seek a plea arrangement like the one prosecutors sought earlier this year, his office is “going to invite criticism from the very Republicans who will put the pressure on him right now who now feel great that there are these very serious charges against Hunter Biden,” he told The Independent. “Given all the forces at play, all the political pressure exerted from the Republican members of Congress, it’s very hard to predict where this is going to go, and how.” Read More Trump denies pushing for Biden impeachment inquiry in secret meetings with MAGA Republicans Hunter Biden indicted: What are the charges and what could happen next? Will House Republicans put up or shut up on Hunter Biden? Should domestic abusers have the right to be armed? The Supreme Court could upend protections for survivors Trump, January 6 and a conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election: The federal investigation, explained
1970-01-01 08:00
Buffalo Bills Giving Takeo Spikes an Obstructed View Is the Ultimate Tribute
Takeo Spikes Blasts Bills for Bad Seats.
1970-01-01 08:00
Why Rasmus Hojlund's goal against Brighton was disallowed
The reason why Rasmus Hojlund's goal for Man Utd was ruled out against Brighton.
1970-01-01 08:00
