Chelsea hired Xabi Alonso as manager on Sunday on a four-year deal starting next season, with the Spaniard returning to coaching after a short, rocky spell at Real Madrid and tasked with bringing stability to a club that has become dysfunctional under its American ownership.

Alonso will formally take charge on July 1 as the replacement for Liam Rosenior, who was fired last month, and will become the fifth permanent coach appointed by Chelsea owners Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital since they bought the Premier League team in 2022.

Alonso lasted eight months at Madrid before leaving the Spanish giants by mutual consent in January after poor results and widespread media reports that he lost control of a locker room wracked by infighting and disharmony this season.

Before that, the former Spain midfielder had built a strong reputation at Bayer Leverkusen, which he led to the German title and an unbeaten domestic campaign in the 2023-24 season, and Chelsea described Alonso as “one of the most respected figures in the modern game.”

“From my conversations with the ownership group and sporting leadership, it is clear we share the same ambition,” Alonso said in a Chelsea statement. “We want to build a team capable of competing consistently at the highest level and fighting for trophies.”

Without a domestic trophy for eight years, Chelsea was European champion as recently as 2021 and won the Club World Cup against most pundits’ expectations last summer.

However, Chelsea looks highly unlikely to be in next season’s Champions League and might miss out on European competition entirely after a huge dip in form in the second half of the campaign. The club was guaranteed a trophyless season by losing to Manchester City in the FA Cup final on Saturday.

“There is great talent in the squad and huge potential at this football club and it will be my great honor to lead it,” Alonso said. “Now the focus is on hard work, building the right culture and winning trophies.”

Storm clouds are hovering over Chelsea

After an unseemly end to Rosenior’s turbulent tenure, Chelsea’s ownership said it would be undertaking “a process of self-reflection” ahead of its next coaching appointment, amid growing tension among supporters about the direction of the club and its massive financial concerns following years of heavy spending.

In the four years under Boehly and Clearlake, around $2.5 billion has been spent on new, mostly young and unproven players on long contracts while the club has taken on a debt approaching $2 billion, according to figures compiled by The Athletic.

Chelsea’s most recent financial results revealed the club made pre-tax losses of $350 million, a record in the Premier League era.

It’s with this backdrop that Alonso — who has long been linked with a potential move to Liverpool, another of his former teams — heads to Chelsea, which he described as “one of the biggest clubs in world football.”

“His appointment,” Chelsea said, “reflects the club’s belief in his broad set of experiences, coaching quality and game model, leadership attributes, character and integrity, which were key to the decision to ask him to help lead the next phase of Chelsea’s journey.

“He is regarded not only as an outstanding football coach, but also as a proven leader and partner across a number of areas essential to the demands of driving the team.”

McFarlane remains in temporary charge

Chelsea has two games left this season — against Tottenham and Sunderland in the Premier League — for which interim coach Calum McFarlane will stay in charge.

___

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

Now that Wes Streeting and Andy Burnham have both effectively thrown their hats into the ring for a possible Labour leadership contest, their allies have been making the case for their man to replace Keir Starmer.

Here we take a look at who they are – and why they are supporting their candidate.

Andy Burnham

Josh Simons

Simons surprised Westminster this week by announcing he would stand down in his Makerfield seat to allow Mr Burnham to run for Parliament. Previously seen as an ally of home secretary Shabana Mahmood he has warned Labour faces an “existential” crisis without Mr Burnham’s leadership.

Lucy Powell

Labour’s deputy leader is a longtime ally and close friend of the mayor of Greater Manchester. On Friday she said she “fully supports” his bid to be the Labour candidate in Makerfield, adding: “We’ve got to do our politics differently, we’ve got to end the factionalism, we’ve got to embrace all the different traditions of the Labour Party, all the different voices and bring one team back together.

“And that means having Andy Burnham as a key player in that team, in my view.”

Heidi Alexander

The transport secretary is still a member of Keir Starmer’s cabinet and has said this week that he has her “full support”. But she is expected to back Mr Burnham if an election contest gets underway.

‘Soft Left’ Labour MPs

Many of the party’s ‘soft left’ wing are understood to support Mr Burnham and back his call for what has been dubbed “Manchesterism” to be applied more widely across the country. They will have been buoyed by an interview he gave to Channel 4 News on Saturday in which he said: “We need a different path completely. What is that path? Put more things back under stronger public control: energy, housing, water, transport.

“I’ve done that with buses in Greater Manchester.”

Wes Streeting

Jess Phillips

The former minister resigned from Keir Starmer’s team last week. She has said the ex-health secretary showed the “bravery and boldness” needed in government. She told the BBC: “The prime minister does definitely care about violence against women and girls, don’t get me wrong, but what I see from Wes is bravery and boldness.”

Zubir Ahmed

The Glasgow South West MP also resigned this week – as a health minister – and is seen as a close ally of Mr Streeting. He also used his resignation letter to publicly criticise Sir Keir’s leadership.

Chris Curtis

With Mr Ahmed, another member of the 2024 intake which brought huge numbers of new Labour MPs to Parliament. The MP for Milton Keynes North, he is the influential chair of the influential Labour Growth Group, which campaigns on economic and planning reform.

Peter Kyle

The business secretary has so far remained loyal to Keir Starmer. But the Hove and Portslade MP is a close friend of Streeting. He was forced to deny they had plotted in the wake of the disastrous local election results, saying instead they had gone out to dinner and to watch The Devil Wears Prada 2.

MPs on the right of the Labour party

Mr Streeting is viewed with suspicion by some MPs on the left of the party, who fear he is too right-leaning. But his supporters argue he is the only one who can save Labour and the country from a Reform-led government after the next election.

The Wigan MP added: “While the North of England has driven so much sporting excellence, no matter the talent we produce, the sporting moments we create, and the world-class events we attract – for too long we have been told the Olympics is simply too big and too important to be hosted in the North.

Available for over a year

It’s the world’s fourth largest economy, with over 40 million people and home to some of the world’s most powerful tech companies. So why aren’t the Democratic party’s biggest names queuing up for a chance to run California?

Voting has started in a primary to decide who will run to replace Governor Gavin Newsom. Democrats have been scrambling after its frontrunner, Rep Eric Swalwell dropped out following allegations of sexual misconduct, and without a blockbuster candidate such as Kamala Harris, Democrat voters have been left navigating a crowded, unsettled field of candidates.

In this episode, Sarah, Anthony and Justin discuss why California is problematic to govern and assess the risk for Democrats possibly losing the state. Also, who is the British-born Republican endorsed by Trump and does he have a real chance of making it to the November election?

We also hear from Democrat Californian royalty, Christine Pelosi, long time Democrat strategist who is now running as a Californian State Senate candidate, and of course daughter to Nancy Pelosi, former speaker of the House of Representatives.

HOSTS:
• Sarah Smith, North America Editor
• Justin Webb, Radio 4 presenter
• Anthony Zurcher, North America Correspondent

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This episode was made by George Dabby with Tom Gillett, Alix Pickles and Grace Reeve. The technical producer was Jonny Hall. The series producer is Purvee Pattni. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.

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The new offerings are part of Samsung TV Plus, a free streaming service integrated into Samsung smart TVs and selected Galaxy devices.

Wrestling enthusiasts can now enjoy Wrestling Legends TV, a channel dedicated to WWE programming and behind-the-scenes content, accessible on channel 4613.

Eurovision Sport has also been launched on channel 4611, providing Olympic sports coverage, highlights, and documentaries at no extra cost.

This service, run by the European Broadcasting Union, recently secured a deal with Aquatics GB to stream diving, artistic swimming, and open water events.

Additionally, fans of Korean dramas can tune into new channels from Series K on channels 4254 and 4259, offering a variety of box sets and shows.

Football supporters are not left out, as a Bundesliga channel is currently showing live matches and highlights on channel 4003 during a promotional period.

All these new channels come at no extra cost.

Samsung smart TV users also got a few extra channels in March thanks to a deal made with UKTV.

It meant that UKTV’s channels were available to internet-only Samsung TV viewers in the UK for the first time, without needing another connection like an aerial.

U&Drama, U&Dave and U&W are among the channels covered by a new deal.

What Samsung TVs can access Samsung TV Plus?

Samsung shares that its free streaming service is available on all Samsung Smart TVs from 2016 onwards and Samsung Galaxy Devices: Mobile & Tablet – Android 11.0 or higher.

It adds: “Your Samsung devices come with Samsung TV Plus – Samsung’s free ad-supported Smart TV video service, delivering instant access to news, sports, entertainment, and more.

Recommended reading:

“No subscription, additional device, or credit card needed.”

You can watch free TV without a Samsung account, but creating one unlocks extra features.

It adds: “The extra features include continue watching, favourite [sic] channels, edit channels, set watch reminders, and create watch lists.”

Have you been watching the new channels on your Samsung TV? Let us know in the comments.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — In 1965, Black Americans peacefully demonstrated for voting rights and were beaten by Alabama state troopers before returning two weeks later to complete their march under federal protection. Keith Odom was a toddler then.

Now 62 years old, the union man and grandfather of three retraced some of their final steps. On Saturday, he came from Aiken, South Carolina, to Atlanta, where he joined several dozen other activists on two buses to Montgomery, Alabama. A few hours later, he stepped off his bus and onto Dexter Avenue, where the original march concluded.

“The history here — being a part of it, seeing it, feeling it,” said Odom, who is Black.

His voice trailed off as he saw the Alabama Capitol and a stage that sat roughly where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. concluded the original march.

Odom lamented that he and his fellow bus riders were not simply commemorating that seminal day in the Civil Rights Movement. Instead they came to renew the fight. The 1965 effort helped push Congress to send the Voting Rights Act to Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson to sign, securing and expanding political power for Black and other nonwhite voters for more than a half-century.

Saturday’s “All Roads Lead to the South” rally was the first mass organizing response after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that severely diminished that landmark law. Striking down a majority Black congressional district in Louisiana, the justices concluded in a 6-3 ruling that considering race when drawing political lines is in itself discriminatory. That spurred multiple states, including Alabama, to redraw U.S. House districts in ways that make it harder for Black voters, who lean overwhelmingly Democratic, to elect lawmakers of their choice.

“I’m not trying to live a life that’s going backwards,” Odom said. “I want to go forward, for my grandchildren to be able to go forward.”

An old political battle is new again

The passenger rosters and the scene when riders arrived in Montgomery sounded the echoes and rhymes of past and present.

“I talked to my grandmother before I came, and she was so excited,” said Justice Washington, a Kennesaw State University student named because her mother and grandmother had faith in the American system. “My grandmother told me she did her part, and now it’s time for me to do mine.”

No one on the Atlanta buses had reached voting age when the Voting Rights Act became law. The youngest attendee was born as Democrat Barack Obama was elected the first Black president in 2008.

Kobe Chernushin is 18, white and just graduated high school in Atlanta’s northern suburbs. He is an organizer with the Georgia Youth Justice Coalition and spent the day filming Khayla Doby, a 29-year-old executive for the organization, doing standups for the group’s followers on social media.

“I believe in the power of showing up,” he said.

The buses launched from the congressional district in Georgia once represented by John Lewis, bloodied on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, when he was 25. Lewis died in 2020, but some on the buses Saturday celebrated that a proposed federal election overhaul is named for him. If some Democrats get their way, the bill would override the U.S. Supreme Court, reinvigorate the Voting Rights Act and outlaw the kind of gerrymandering competition that Republican President Donald Trump has instigated.

“I’m here because of the same forces that pulled on John Lewis when he was a student,” said Darrin Owens, 27. He has worked for former Vice President Kamala Harris and now trains Democratic candidates.

“Political activism is personal,” Owens said, explaining that he attended Saturday as a citizen, not a political professional. “Sometimes those lines are blurred, and as a Black person in America, a Black person living in a Southern state, I’m committed to action that stops what I consider to be un-American, this possibility that the person who represents me is someone who is not from my community and does not understand me or my community.”

When he arrived, Owens saw no federal authorities on Montgomery’s streets. A wounded, recovering Lewis did during the second march in 1965.

This time many of the Alabama troopers and local officers who walked the area were Black.

The buses and sandwich lunches had been arranged by Fair Fight Action, a legacy of the political network built by Georgia Democrat Stacey Abrams, who became a national figure in her unsuccessful runs in 2018 and 2022 to become the first Black woman elected governor in U.S. history. No Black woman has yet achieved that feat.

Different generations share their stories

At different points, Montgomery has branded itself as the cradle of the Confederacy and the cradle of the modern Civil Rights Movement.

“It feels like our country is stuck in this pattern of making progress, then there’s a huge backlash, and then people have to go through the same battle again just to get to where we were,” said Phi Nguyen, the 41-year-old daughter of Vietnamese refugees. She is now a civil rights lawyer in Atlanta.

She stood across from the church where a young King led the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955 and not far from where Jefferson Davis took the oath of office in 1861 as the slavery-defending Confederate president.

Nguyen and her sister Bee, a 44-year-old who served in the Georgia General Assembly and ran for statewide office, met two other women as they walked. Carole Burton and Tondalaire Ashford are 72-year-old Montgomery residents who have been friends since they were in a segregated junior high school and then newly desegregated Sidney Lanier High School.

“I don’t call it ‘integration,’” Ashford said, pointing at her dark skin. “It was never real integration, and it’s not like we can ever just blend in.”

Burton described them as being “in the second wave” of Black students. “It wasn’t easy,” she said. “And we had to support each other.”

They remember their parents not being able to vote in the era of poll taxes, literacy tests and other racist restrictions that the Voting Rights Act eventually outlawed. But they smiled as they swapped family histories with the Nguyens.

Burton said immigrants, descendants of enslaved persons and Native Americans have different but overlapping paths. “We just want to be treated like people with the same rights and opportunities the country has promised us,” she said. “They’ve never fully lived up to it.”

Conflicting legacies are at stake

To Odom, who had begun his journey Saturday in South Carolina, the current U.S. Supreme Court reinforced that history by refusing to see some race-conscious election policy as a way to ensure fair representation, not simply the “technical right to vote.”

He recalls decades of his life being represented by Strom Thurmond, a segregationist Democratic governor who became a “Dixiecrat” presidential candidate and U.S. senator — by now as a Republican — into the 21st century. Odom said he fears his state losing U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, a senior member of the Congressional Black Caucus, through redistricting.

“They want to take away that legacy when we’re still living with Strom’s?” Odom said.

Odom said he is also worried that the young people who participated Saturday are not a vanguard but outliers.

“I was talking to a 20-year-old co-worker about this trip,” he said. “She told me she supported me but didn’t want to do it or work for anybody” running for office. “She wondered what any of them are going to do for her.”

Nonetheless, he said on the way home, “I’m still going to tell her what I saw and what I heard.”

The Fish Cottage, in Sandsend, near Whitby, just 20 yards from the beach, has been delighting diners with its fresh seafood and “relaxed atmosphere”, including serving fish tacos and other adventurous things compared to traditional fish and chips.

It was ranked highly in restaurants in Sandsend and Whitby on TripAdvisor, earning praise for both its menu and setting.

Food at Fish Cottage, Sandsend (Image: TRIPADVISOR)

The restaurant serves lunch, dinner and drinks and offers gluten-free options.

Open daily from 11.30am, it closes at 7pm on Sundays and at 10pm the rest of the week.

One recent visitor, who wrote a review in May, said: “This is a gorgeous little place, in proximity to the beach and with its own customer parking outside.

“We have had both the outdoor seated takeout option, and highly recommend, as well as dining in the restaurant.

“Food is lovely and service very good too.”

Another customer, who visited in the spring, wrote: “Walked from Whitby to Sandsend to go for lunch.

“Sunshine and sea air, followed by a fantastic meal served by great staff.

“We wanted to try everything on the menu but eventually opted for mussels in citrus butter, squid with allioli (fantastic), halibut with beurre blanc, Indonesian fish curry and rhubarb crème brûlée…

“Would happily order the same again today.”

However, not all feedback has been glowing, with some diners pointing to slow service during busy periods, high prices, and smaller-than-expected portions.

Other diners praised the freshness of the food and the friendly staff.

The Fish Cottage in Sandsend (Image: TRIPADVISOR)

One customer wrote: “It was an absolutely amazing experience, fabulous fresh fish.

“The fish and prawn tacos were excellent.

“The service was really good too.”

Another reviewer who visited in March described the venue as a “charming fish restaurant” and said: “Lovely choice of seafood, great wine selection and attentive staff.”

Another customer left a glowing review after being seated at the table they requested.

Some diners suggested that the outdoor seating area offers better value for money and a more relaxed vibe.

One reviewer wrote: “All the food was good and the outdoor sitting area was comfortable, and with good music, it did feel very much like a holiday.

“The service was fast and friendly.”

WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has declared the Ebola disease outbreak in Congo and Uganda a public health emergency of international concern.

It comes after more than 300 suspected cases and 88 deaths from the disease in the African nations.

The World Health Organization, in a post on X, said that the outbreak of the disease caused by the Bundibugyo virus does not meet the criteria of a pandemic emergency like the COVID-19 pandemic.

The health body advised against the closure of international borders.

Officials first announced the spread of the disease in Congo on Friday, reporting 65 deaths and 246 suspected cases.

On Saturday, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 336 suspected cases and 87 deaths.

Congo accounts for all except two of the cases, both of which were reported in neighbouring Uganda, the WHO said.

Uganda on Saturday confirmed one case that it said was imported from Congo.

Officials said that the patient died at a hospital in Uganda’s capital, Kampala, and the WHO said that a second case has been reported in Kampala.

The two cases had no apparent links to each other and both patients had traveled from Congo, it added.

The Bundibugyo virus was first detected in Uganda’s Bundibugyo district during a 2007-2008 outbreak that infected 149 people and killed 37 people. The second time was in 2012 in an outbreak in Isiro, Congo, where 57 cases and 29 deaths were reported.

WHO’s emergency declaration is meant to spur donor agencies and countries into action. However, the global response to previous declarations has been mixed.

In 2024, when the WHO declared mpox outbreaks in Congo and elsewhere in Africa a global emergency, experts at the time said it did little to get supplies like diagnostic tests, medicines and vaccines to affected countries quickly.

Ebola symptoms

The Ebola virus is highly contagious and can be contracted through bodily fluids such as vomit, blood, urine, or semen. The disease it causes is rare but severe, and often fatal.

According to the NHS, Ebola symptoms can start between two and 21 days after being infected.

They can appear suddenly and include flu-like symptoms, such as a high temperature, extreme tiredness and a headache.

Other symptoms include:

Ebola patients are treated in isolation in hospital and given specialist care in an ICU.