List of All Articles with Tag 'so'

Sudanese authorities loyal to the regular army have declared UN envoy Volker Perthes "persona non grata", accusing him of taking sides in nearly two months...

From goalkeeper of the year to out for a year. From elite to club exile, from No.1 to drugs ban, from sought-after to released on a free. And all the way back again. Andre Onana is bidding to hit the pinnacle of the sport and become a European champion, 855 days on from first being handed a ban for a doping violation. It’s a journey which would make some shrink from the challenge or play havoc with their mindset, yet setbacks - which feels too understated of a word - seem part and parcel of the Cameroonian’s career. Indeed, it’s less that Onana’s story is one of a rise-fall-rise, and more of a non-stop, chaotic rollercoaster which travels an upward trajectory even as the stomach still feels like it’s heading the opposite direction. And all of this is even before he gets to attempt stopping Erling Haaland and co. For starters, the many months spent not being allowed to train or play with Ajax wasn’t the first time he had suffered such a fate. Back after he joined his first club in Europe, Barcelona, Onana was one of the group of youngsters unable to play after the Spanish club were found to have breached recruitment laws, effectively banning him until 18 years of age. Coming back from that and then seeing Marc-Andre ter Stegen signed meant an exit was a certainty if he wanted first-team football. The Eredivisie came calling and Onana signed for Ajax in 2015, then still a teenager. After a season and a half with the second string team, he was straight into the senior line-up and barely missed a game for four-and-a-half years. Despite not signing for Inter Milan until this term, 2022/23, Onana’s last full season for Ajax was 18/19. The following year the Dutch top flight was curtailed early due to the Covid pandemic, while 20/21 saw him hit by a Uefa doping ban for accidentally ingesting his wife’s tablets, which contained a prohibited substance. The ban was originally 12 months, brought down to nine, but it meant he missed the rest of that campaign and much of the next, only featuring in six league games in 21/22. All that, and still he had picked up a league and cup double and reached the Europa League final before matters started to go awry once more. And so to a new comeback, a new attempt to scale one of his own mountains. “I can’t say anything but thanks to [Simone] Inzaghi for giving me the chance to play for Inter. “Being here is a source of pride for me, and I hope that we can go on and win everything,” Onana said ahead of the Champions League final. “Without any fear, as I always say.” And why would he have any? For someone who has been forced by others to miss so much football, getting to actually play a game - even one of the biggest matches - certainly won’t be a situation to back down from. Inter certainly rely on him, the man to finally take over the gloves from the seemingly eternal Samir Handanovic. That said, the club laughably glossed over the reason for his most recent enforced absence when he signed: “There have been wonderful moments and particularly onerous ones [in Onana’s career], too, such as having to train on his own before returning to the action in between the sticks.” Yes, train on his own he effectively did, taking a mini team with him to Spain to keep him in shape for months and preparing for his return. Again it has paid off, with a move to Italy secured and this latest run in Europe offering a second shot at continental glory. Yet, even as Onana’s club situation has spiralled wildly from one extreme to the other through misfortune or misjudgement, there cannot be doubt he has one way or another contributed to it too. He absolutely acknowledges that the error with his wife’s medicin was his own responsibility. Onana had no intention of cheating - the tablet he took offers no athletic advantage and Uefa accepted his explanation - but, as he said at the time, the “human error” doesn’t ultimately matter when “you’re responsible for everything in your body”. That instance would have led to Onana missing the Africa Cup of Nations, had the sentence not been reduced. Ten months later, he did miss the World Cup after a more direct confrontation: a disagreement with Cameroon head coach Rigobert Song and a dismissal from the squad. After playing the first game, the pair argued over tactics and Onana subsequently retired from international duty, just 34 caps to his name. Samuel Eto’o has been asked to play the peacemaker to lure the goalkeeper back by former captain Stephane Mbia, but at present it seems the Indomitable Lions squad will continue with stoppers playing in Latvia, Saudi Arabia and on home soil, rather than one ready to feature in the Champions League final. It’s likely he’ll have a crucial role to play there with his side very much second favourites against Manchester City. Onana already has one club record wrapped up, becoming the first Inter Milan No.1 to keep seven Champions League clean sheets in the same season. One more feels like an extraordinary ask, but given the mountains he has already scaled to reach this point in his career, it would be remarkably on-brand if he did so to complete his most dramatic and unexpected turnaround yet. Read More The trick that made Erling Haaland the ultimate finisher — in more ways than one Inter and the impossible task of the Champions League final A World Cup-winning striker and mean defence – Inter’s strengths and weaknesses Bastoni at the back with Martinez in attack – Inter Milan’s key players The trick that made Erling Haaland the ultimate finisher — in more ways than one

The US Secret Service will meet Mr Trump's staff on Friday to plan his arrest and court appearance.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan appointed former Wall Street executive Hafize Gaye Erkan as central bank governor on Friday, signalling a possible shift from his...

General Motors Co. will adapt its electric vehicles to Tesla Inc.’s Superchargers, following Ford Motor Co.’s lead and

By Jeff Mason WASHINGTON U.S. President Joe Biden travels to North Carolina on Friday to tout his economic

The last time former President Donald Trump was indicted, his successor left the White House the next day intent on going about his schedule without wading into the matter.

Former president Donald Trump’s attorney Alina Habba said on Fox News that she is “ashamed” and “embarrassed” to be a lawyer after the former president was indicted. Ms Habba spoke on Jesse Watters’ show amid news that a federal grand jury indicted Mr Trump on charges related to his allegedly unlawful retention of national defence information. Mr Trump’s attorney said the indictment was a distraction from supposed impropriety on behalf of President Joe Biden, pointing to the fact that House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer was planning to hold FBI Director Christoper Wray, whom Mr Trump nominated to lead the bureau in 2017, in contempt of Congress for supposedly withholding documents. House Republicans have so far come up short in their accusations against Mr Biden. Mr Comer retracted the contempt vote after the FBI agreed to share documents, The New York Timesreported. House Republicans have so far come up short in their accusations against Mr Biden. “Every single time there is a coordinated dance that is becoming obvious to the American people because they are smart,” Ms Habba said. The Trump attorney added that the indictments of the twice-impeached former president were the equivalent of a “shiny ball” meant to distract the American public. “I'm embarrassed to be a lawyer at this moment,” she said. “Honestly, I am ashamed. I'm ashamed to be a lawyer. I'm ashamed that this is the state of our country.” Ms Habba claimed the indictment showed the United States had a two-tiered system of justice. “And it is so obvious that there's this dual system of justice,” she said. “This is selective prosecution, selective persecution. It is absolute persecution. It is Russia third world stuff, and it should not be happening.” Mr Trump first broadcast the indictment on his Truth Social networking platform on Thursday, one day after The Independent had reported that federal prosecutors planned to ask a grand jury to indict Mr Trump. “I never thought it possible that such a thing could happen to a former President of the United States, who received far more votes than any sitting President in the History of our Country, and is currently leading, by far, all Candidates, both Democrat and Republican, in Polls of the 2024 Presidential Election,” Mr Trump said, denying his guilt and proclaiming he is an “innocent man.” Mr Trump said he has been summoned to appear at a federal courthouse in Miami on Tuesday by 3 pm ET. Read More Trump indictment – latest: Trump faces 100-year jail sentence as he declares ‘I am an innocent man’ Trump unleashes on ‘woke military’ and says America is ‘going to hell’ in bizarre Truth Social rant Can Donald Trump run for president after being indicted? Read Trump’s furious reaction to indictment: ‘This is war’ Ivanka and Jared split over attending Trump 2024 launch – follow live Why was Donald Trump impeached twice during his first term? Four big lies Trump told during his 2024 presidential announcement

3D movies suck for me. As a glasses-wearer whose best attempt at contact lenses was

The 2022/23 season will finally come to an end on Saturday when Manchester City and Inter face off in what promises to be a truly historic UEFA Champions League final.

Robbie Williams has spilled that his most famous song 'Angels' is actually about his belief in heavenly beings.

What do the transgender whistleblower Chelsea Manning, the 1950s Soviet spy Julius Rosenberg and former president Donald Trump all have in common? The answer, following the indictment arising from the discovery of classified documents at Mr Trump's Mar-a-Lago home in Florida, is that all four have been investigated under suspicion of violating the Espionage Act of 1917. When the FBI raided Mr Trump’s property last August, they were looking for items that might violate the Act, which regulates the handling of confidential documents relating to national security. Most often used against spies, whistleblowers and government employees who leak documents to journalists, the Espionage Act carries a maximum sentence of ten years in prison. So what exactly is Mr Trump being investigated for? A contentious law with roots in First World War paranoia The Espionage Act is a controversial and often contested law that dates from America’s entry into the First World War against Germany in 1917. Even before joining the conflict, President Woodrow Wilson had urged Congress to crack down on immigrant groups and radical political movements that he claimed had “poured the poison of disloyalty into the very arteries of our national life”. At the time, German-Americans were a large and influential ethnic group, with those born in Germany comprising 2.7 per cent of the US population and 18.5 per cent of the foreign-born population, according to the census of 1910. Over 27 per cent of the nation’s “foreign white stock” spoke German as their mother tongue. There were German-language schools, churches, and newspapers throughout the country, which faced backlash from English-speaking groups. Passed just two months after Wilson joined the war and bolstered one year later in 1918, the Espionage Act criminalised many forms of dissent against the war, leading to jail sentences against speech-makers, leafleteers, film-makers and newspaper editors. The act’s more radical provisions were dismantled after the war, but other parts remain in force – including those listed in Section 793 of the US Code of Laws, which bans citizens from leaking or mishandling information relating to “national defence”. Since then, the Act has been used to prosecute the Soviet spies Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, the Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, National Security Agency leakers Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning and various other people who leaked US government secrets to journalists, the public or other nation states. What does the Espionage Act ban? US Code Section 793 forbids various forms of obtaining, leaking or failing to properly look after “information respecting the national defence”. For example, it forbids anyone to acquire any information about US national security facilities if they intend or have reason to believe that the information might be used “to the injury of the United States or the advantage of any foreign nation”. The Act also bans people lawfully entrusted with defence information that could harm the US from giving it to any unauthorised person, or from “wilfully retaining” it and failing to deliver it “to the officer entitled to receive it”. Another provision, wider in scope, makes it a crime for anyone trusted with such information (such as presidents) to let it be “removed from its proper place of custody”, lost, stolen, or otherwise waylaid “through gross negligence”. The same provision requires officials who become aware of such an incident to “make prompt report to his superior officer”, although it is unclear who Mr Trump’s “superior officer” would be in this case. According to the search warrant issued to agents last summer, the FBI seized various boxes and folders described as including “miscellaneous secret documents” and “miscellaneous top secret documents”. What could happen to Donald Trump now? Mr Trump has claimed he is being wrongly persecuted since the investigation began, just as he did throughout his presidency when his election campaign’s possible ties to Russia were closely examined. “This raid of President Trump’s home was not just unprecedented, but unnecessary – and now they are leaking lies and innuendos to try to explain away the weaponisation of government against their dominant political opponent,” a spokesman said in response to August’s raid. In response to his indictment on Thursday (8 June), Mr Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform: “The corrupt Biden Administration has informed my attorneys that I have been Indicted, seemingly over the Boxes Hoax. “I have been summoned to appear at the Federal Courthouse in Miami on Tuesday, at 3 PM. I never thought it possible that such a thing could happen to a former President of the United States, who received far more votes than any sitting President in the History of our Country, and is currently leading, by far, all Candidates, both Democrat and Republican, in Polls of the 2024 Presidential Election. I AM AN INNOCENT MAN!” If he is ultimately prosecuted and convicted, Mr Trump could be fined or imprisoned for up to 10 years, as well as forfeiting any property bought with proceeds of the crime. A conviction could potentially prevent him from holding political office again, not only because of the reputational damage but because the Fourteenth Amendment to the US constitution bans candidates who “have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against [the US], or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof”. When the Socialist German-American journalist and former congressman Victor Berger was elected to a second term in 1918, Congress refused to seat him because he had been sentenced to 20 years in jail under the Espionage Act. However, with Mr Trump’s Republican allies rallying to his defence – and promising to investigate the way the FBI have treated him – who knows where this saga could end? Read More Trump indictment – latest: Trump faces 100-year jail sentence as he declares ‘I am an innocent man’ Trump unleashes on ‘woke military’ and says America is ‘going to hell’ in bizarre Truth Social rant Read Trump’s furious reaction to indictment: ‘This is war’ Trump has been indicted again: These are the investigations he faces Ivanka and Jared split over attending Trump 2024 launch – follow live Why was Donald Trump impeached twice during his first term? Four big lies Trump told during his 2024 presidential announcement