Donald Trump is under fire from Republicans for complimenting North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un after his country was admitted to the World Health Organisation’s Executive Board. “Congratulations to Kim Jung Un!” the former president wrote on Truth Social, misspelling his name while sharing news of the admission. The post drew immediate condemnation from GOP presidential candidates and state party leaders. “Kim Jong Un starves his own people,” Mr Trump’s former UN ambassador and 2024 opponent Nikki Haley said on Twitter. “It’s a total farce that North Korea has a leading role at the World Health Organisation.” Georgia Governor Brian Kemp wrote: “Taking our country back from Joe Biden does not start with congratulating North Korea’s murderous dictator.” Former GOP Maryland governor Larry Page also derided Mr Trump: “Kim Jong-un is an enemy of America who threatens peace and freedom. The fact that Trump delusionally believes otherwise makes him a useful idiot for China and unfit to be president.” Mr Trump famously enjoyed a warm relationship with Mr Kim during his one-term presidency, frequently praising the 39-year-old despot and becoming the first sitting US leader to visit the isolated communist country. He even bragged about exchanging “love letters” with Mr Kim, who frequently threatens the US and its allies with nuclear attack. Others pointed out the peculiarity of their relationship. “Donald Trump fangirling over a dictator like Kim Jong-un feels very on brand for a wannabe dictator like Trump,” one Twitter user posted. Dr Jong Min Pak this week became the first North Korean official to be appointed for a three-year term to the WHO’s executive board. “What this means is that one of the world’s most horrific regimes is now a part of a group that sets and enforces the standards and norms for the global governance of health care,” UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer said in a statement. “It is an absurd episode for a key UN agency that is in much need of self-reflection and reform.” Others to join the executive board are Australia, Barbados, Cameroon, Comoros, Lesotho, Qatar, Switzerland, Togo and Ukraine. Several recent appointments of serial human rights abusers to leadership roles in international organisations have also faced condemnation. Russia took charge of the United Nations Security Council in April, while Iran is chairing the UN Human Rights Council 2023 Social Forum. A South Korean lawmaker this week said that Mr Kim was obese and suffering from severe insomnia and alcohol addiction. Read More Trump news – latest: Trump tells Fox News he’d have the US ‘hopping again’ Trump wants New York judge removed in Manhattan hush-money case Kim Jong-un may be suffering from insomnia and ‘worsening alcohol dependency’ 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

It was the England squad that was out of date even before it was announced. Eberechi Eze was out before he knew he was in. His Euro 2020 had ended before he knew he might play a part in it. As he prepares for a belated England debut, two years after Gareth Southgate had first called him up, it nevertheless marks swift progress for a footballer released by Arsenal at 13, Fulham at 15 and Millwall at 18. Eze has a calmness that has enabled him to deal with setbacks, a quiet assurance that has stemmed from his faith. He has a belief in destiny, that things are meant to be. It helped him to deal with events of May 2021. “In training we were playing small-sided games, five v five, and I received the ball and went to push off and start running with it and I just felt a pop,” recalled the Crystal Palace midfielder. “It felt like someone had kicked me or someone behind me had stepped on my ankle but I looked around and no one was there. So I knew it was serious.” His immediate instincts were sadly correct. He required surgery. As he was digesting and disseminating the news, he discovered he was in England’s 33-man provisional squad for the tournament. Their number had to be reduced to 26. The luckless Eze was the first to go. “I had gone inside, had a little assessment from the doctor and he told me that I had done my Achilles,” Eze said. “I asked for my phone to tell my wife and my family and I saw I had the message I was in the provisional squad for England. For it to happen on that day…” Eze coped with greater equanimity than many others would have done. “I found myself at peace because I understood I wasn’t meant to be,” he said. He found England’s eventual run to the final “inspirational”. There was no bitterness, no sense it might have been him. “I look at things deep so I saw it, ‘listen this is just another hurdle on the way, you know what you can do and where you can get to, so the focus is to keep going and keep pushing,’” he explained. A theme of his career is that he does get there in the end, even if he is tripped up by the hurdles. “Against the odds, I am in this position,” he said. “Getting released from Millwall was quite tough, because that was the time when everyone is getting their pro contract and you don’t know where you are going.” He had passed through a series of clubs. Even when picked up by QPR, he made a solitary appearance before being loaned to League Two Wycombe. “Without that experience who knows if I would be here?” he wondered. Now he has found the approval of two England managers: both Southgate and Roy Hodgson, who signed him for Palace in 2020 and whose unexpected return to the dugout in April brought a burst of six goals in nine games for Eze, leading to international recognition. “He has insane wisdom,” said Eze. Hodgson and his long-time assistant Ray Lewington have helped Eze on and off the field, with his confidence, with his mental state, with their guidance. “I owe so much to them,” he added. “It has opened my eyes to more.” His chances of an England bow may be increased if the Manchester City duo of Jack Grealish and Phil Foden sit the game out after their Champions League final exertions. He hopes his parents will be able to join him in Malta. Eze is of Nigerian descent and qualified to play for two countries but when England called, it felt the right decision to accept their approach. He is a different type of talent, a player comfortable operating in small spaces, with the skill to prevail in close quarters. It is a result of his upbringing; fellow south Londoners like Wilfried Zaha and Jadon Sancho learnt the game in a similar way. “I think there’s load of players that have grown up playing in cages so they understand, they know what it is about,” he said. “It is fun, it is enjoyable, and it is where you get your first learning as a footballer in south London. It has helped massively and I can see that now in how I play, how I think and how I assess situations. It’s definitely a strength I have.” The journey from the cages of south London to Premier League pitches was indirect, his route to international football then obstructed by an ill-timed injury. It has not come easy for Eze. But the man who was released and rejected, injured and ill-fated could be an England international on Friday. Read More Eberechi Eze feels injury nightmare gave him platform for England recognition Manchester City quintet set to arrive for England duty on Tuesday evening Jude Bellingham uses pain of England’s near misses in bid for Euro 2024 glory Eberechi Eze feels injury nightmare gave him platform for England recognition Sportswashing is about to change football beyond anything you can imagine Football rumours: Man United, Real Madrid and Chelsea fight for Kylian Mbappe

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Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola has expressed his concern about the demands on players in light of changes such as an expanded Club World Cup and more time being added on in games. After winning the Champions League to complete their treble last term, City will compete in December’s Club World Cup in Saudi Arabia – what is planned to be the final edition featuring seven teams, with the next a 32-side competition taking place in the United States in the summer of 2025. Meanwhile, the significant increase in time added on seen at last year’s World Cup in Qatar, designed to tackle timewasting, is something set to apply to Premier League matches this season. Every year is getting worse and worse, and will be worse. I don’t know how it is going to end, honestly Pep Guardiola on the physical demands faced by players Speaking ahead of his side opening their 2023-24 campaign with Sunday’s Community Shield clash against Arsenal, Guardiola said: “I know at the end of next season, we are going to make a (Club) World Cup in the United States after finishing the season, two or three more weeks. That means the holidays will be 15 days or maybe three weeks. “I think it doesn’t exist already, pre-seasons. The problem is here (touching his head) – exhausted. Look already how many players are injured in pre-season, in bad conditions, humidity, hot, the pitches are not really good, especially in the States. “It is what it is, so we have to adapt, adjust – but it is not normal. “Now, for example, every game we’re going to play for 100 minutes. Wasting time – from my point of view it is not going to be solved by extending 10 more minutes. It’s more tiring for the players. It’s too much. “FIFA, UEFA – more competitions. The World Cup – more teams. This (Club) World Cup – I don’t know how many teams. “I don’t know what (is going to happen) in the future, for the players, even the managers, to prepare. That’s why you have to see exactly how much you demand of the players. “Every day, season by season, it’s difficult to handle for the players. They love to play but they need also recovery, with the stress and tension they have. They make a show like they do in front of 55-60,000 people – that is a lot of energy, mental energy, and every week, to do it, is a lot. “But every year is getting worse and worse, and will be worse. I don’t know how it is going to end, honestly.” As City prepare to hunt down further silverware, Guardiola has stressed the need for a game-by-game approach in which they “respect incredibly the opponent, do our best to win in the way we believe is better – and after we will see”. And he added: “I would say honestly we are closer to not repeating the treble than winning it, we are closer to not winning the Premier League than winning it. And no team ever won four in a row. “Last season – I didn’t start thinking we are going to win the treble. We started, ‘let’s go to try to win (the Community Shield) against Liverpool’ and we lost 3-1. “And after (that) we won and step by step, good moments. Normally we arrive (in the last few months of the season) in a good mentality and shape, and this is what we are going to try to do again.” June’s maiden Champions League triumph for City added to five league titles, two FA Cups and four League Cups they have won since Guardiola took charge in 2016. The Catalan signed a new contract running to 2025 last November, and when asked if he had thought at all about leaving after securing the treble, he said: “I signed a contract because I feel comfortable. “Nothing changed, for the fact of win or not win. It is how I am happy, and the people is happy, the board especially, the hierarchy, because in the end they decide which manager has to lead this group of players. If they are satisfied, I still am satisfied. “I want to defend what we won and year by year, maybe at the end of the season I am tired, or I say we will talk with the club, or maybe extend more, I don’t know.”

The US could begin withdrawing troops from Niger in the coming weeks, according to two US officials, which would mark a significant change to the American military presence in the country following a coup that toppled the democratically elected government in Niamey in late July.

Donald Trump has gone on an unhinged Truth Social rant blaming President Joe Biden and “wokeness” for the US’s unexpected early defeat in the Women’s World Cup. The US Women’s National Soccer Team crashed out of the tournament on Sunday after losing 5-4 in a penalty shootout against Sweden – marking the team’s earliest-ever exit from the competition. In a tirade on his Truth Social platform, Mr Trump reveled in the loss and bizarrely claimed it was a sign of the influence “Crooked Joe Biden” has had on the nation. As well as blaming his political rival, the former president also somehow argued it was because of “WOKE”-ness and cruelly trolled striker Megan Rapinoe for missing a penalty. “The “shocking and totally unexpected” loss by the U.S. Women’s Soccer Team to Sweden is fully emblematic of what is happening to the our once great Nation under Crooked Joe Biden,” he fumed. “Many of our players were openly hostile to America - No other country behaved in such a manner, or even close. WOKE EQUALS FAILURE. Nice shot Megan, the USA is going to Hell!!! MAGA.” The former president has long had a contentious relationship with soccer star Rapinoe, who is well-known off the pitch for her social justice advocacy for racial equality, LGBT+ rights and women’s rights in sports. Back in 2019, Rapinoe sparked Mr Trump’s ire when she vowed that she would not go to Mr Trump’s White House if the national team won the World Cup. “Thanks, but no thanks. I’m not going to the f***ing White House,” she told soccer magazine Eight by Eight that June. “No. I’m not going to the White House, I don’t think we’ll be invited, I doubt it.” The team did win the cup that year – and refused to go to the White House. Mr Trump made it clear he was unhappy with her comments at the time, fuming that she should “never disrespect our country, the White House or our flag, especially since so much has been done for her and the team”. Before this, Rapinoe had already been attacked by conservatives for taking a knee during the national anthem in support of Colin Kaepernick and calls for racial justice. She also sued the US Soccer Federation for gender discrimination and was pivotal to the women’s team gaining equal pay to the men’s. Last year, Mr Biden awarded her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom – the nation’s highest civilian honour. “Beyond the World Cup title to Olympic medals, Megan is a champion for essential American truth that everyone is entitled to be treated with dignity and respect,” the president said at the award ceremony. Mr Trump’s latest angry diatribe involving Rapinoe was a marked difference from Mr Biden’s comments as he said the soccer team had made the US “proud”. “@USWNT, you’ve made your country proud,” he said in a post on Twitter. “Congratulations on an incredible run. This team is something special and I’m looking forward to seeing how you continue to inspire Americans with your grit and determination – on and off the field.” First Lady Jill Biden also praised the soccer team for their “grit and determination” which has inspired women and girls across the country. “Today, you inspired us with your grit and determination. We are proud of you,” she tweeted. “Always remember that you encourage women and girls everywhere to show up and fight for their dreams.” Zero goals were scored during Sunday’s 90-minute game between USA and Sweden, taking it to a penalty shootout. Rapinoe, Sophia Smith and Kelly O’Hara each missed penalties while Sweden soared to a win. The loss marked a shock end to Rapinoe’s stellar career as she had announced she would retire after the World Cup. The 38-year-old has played four times in the tournament, helping the team to victory in both the 2015 and 2019 World Cups. Read More Trump has meltdown attacking Biden, Megan Rapinoe and ‘wokeness’ for US Women’s World Cup loss – latest news Trump lawyer says his legal team is bracing for imminent Georgia indictment England vs Nigeria LIVE: Score and updates from Women’s World Cup as VAR denies Lionesses penalty Mitch McConnell heckled with chants of ‘retire’ after freezing episode Trucking giant Yellow Corp. declares bankruptcy after years of financial struggles Texas separates migrant families, detaining fathers on trespassing charges in latest border move

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