growing

Next up for them is a relegation six-pointer at home to Sean Dyche’s Forest, who sit directly above them on the table in a fixture that could shape Nuno’s future.

A win against the club that sacked him in September after 21 months in charge might buy him some more time, but a defeat would deepen the crisis and amplify the questions over his position.

“Nobody expected us to play so bad,” Nuno added on BBC Match of the Day.

“Now is the moment for us to reflect and think are we doing everything we can? Do we realise the situation we are in? And how to get out of this situation and improve. There are things that need to be addressed.

“Forest will be a tough game, but now is about reacting and transforming and improving.”

The last side to avoid relegation after having less than West Ham‘s 14 points at this stage of the season were Eddie Howe’s Newcastle, who had just 12 after 20 games in 2021-22.

But they spent £85m in January to bolster their squad with Bruno Guimaraes, Chris Wood, Dan Burn, Kieran Trippier and Matt Targett and finished 11th with 49 points after winning 12 of their remaining 18 games.

Although West Ham are committed to backing the manager in the January window, it is highly unlikely Nuno will get the kind of financial support Howe received.

They have already signed Brazilian striker Pablo Felipe from Portuguese club Gil Vicente for a reported fee of 25m euros (£21.8m), and he was an unused substitute at Molineux, but have sent German forward Niclas Fullkrug to AC Milan on loan.

“It is a complex situation,” added Nuno, when asked about the club’s prospects in the transfer market.

“The club is working on that situation [of transfers]. We have problems in terms of squad and options but that is not a justification for what we did in the first half – the mistakes we made, the lack of effort… it was very bad.

“It was about mistakes we made over and over again that was really poor.”

Protests are intensifying in Iran as a deepening economic crisis fuels public anger over soaring prices and falling living standards. Here’s a breakdown of what’s driving the unrest and how authorities are responding.

Justin Herbert could glimpse at the Chargers’ “See the lighting, Feel the thunder” branding above the field-level suites as his offensive linemen pulled him up on the SoFi Stadium turf.

Herbert certainly felt the thunder against the Texans. The NFL’s top defense recorded 26 pressures as it swarmed through the Chargers’ offensive line en route to a 20-16 win Saturday.

And Herbert saw the lightning, best represented by second-string defensive end Derek Barnett’s back-to-back sacks to halt the Chargers’ first drive of the second half.

The latter of Barnett’s takedowns — part of the Texans’ five sacks and eight tackles for loss — came when he spun past Bobby Hart and brought down Herbert for a seven-yard loss.

• Share via Close extra sharing options

Sam Farmer breaks down what went wrong for the Chargers in their 20-16 loss to the Houston Texans on Saturday.

“I mean, it’s just football,” Hart said when asked if he was dwelling on Barnett’s pair of sacks or losing a one-on-one against Texans defensive end Danielle Hunter in the first quarter that left Herbert grimacing and favoring his surgically repaired left hand.

Hart added: “People make plays — defenders, guys, catch the ball. Quarterbacks might have some throws that you want back. It’s just a part of the football game.”

Coach Jim Harbaugh said he pulled Hart in the third quarter because the 31-year-old was “having trouble getting in the rhythm.”

Austin Deculus replaced Hart and Trevor Penning temporarily replaced Mekhi Becton Jr. at right guard for a drive, creating the Chargers’ 24th offensive line combination of the season. But in a game previewing the quality of defenses the Chargers could face in the postseason, the offensive line — hit hard by the losses of Rashawn Slater and Joe Alt to injury — struggled to adequately protect Herbert.

“Just too many mistakes,” right tackle Trey Pipkins III said. “Whatever it was — sacks and untimely situations — we started really slow.”

Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert walks on the field during the second half of a 20-16 loss to the Houston Texans at SoFi Stadium on Sunday.

(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)

The Chargers trailed 14-3 at halftime, punting in each of its first four drives. Herbert, who had 236 passing yards along with a touchdown and an interception, capitalized on Houston penalties and standout plays to extend drives.

Late in the third quarter, Texans defensive lineman Sheldon Rankins burst past left guard Zion Johnson, and then swiftly ran by center Bradley Bozeman in help protection and grabbed Herbert by the waist. Instead of falling to the ground for the sack — a potential sixth overall — Herbert connected with wide receiver Quentin Johnston for the first down.

Moments later, rookie running back Omarion Hampton scored on a five-yard run to make it a four-point game. Outside of the touchdown run, the Chargers’ run game was close to non-existent. Herbert had a team-leading 37 rushing yards, 28 coming on a single run.

Hampton had just 29 yards on 14 carries for a career-low 2.1 yards per carry. The Texans’ downhill attack gave up just 74 rushing yards, the second fewest Houston has given up this season.

“We just shot ourselves in the foot,” said Johnson, who along with Bozeman has appeared in all of the Chargers’ line combinations. “It starts with us up front. We’ve got to protect [Herbert] better. We got to execute better in the run game. There’s too many missed opportunities.”

The Texans revealed the extent of the Chargers’ offensive line weaknesses. With the wild-card playoffs two weeks away, will they be able to figure out their protection issues?

“Learn from it,” Harbaugh said. “Some of the things that happened today, clean up, and use those to be better tomorrow.”

One of the U.S. Air Force’s last remaining EC-130H Compass Call electronic warfare planes is now in Puerto Rico, video emerging on social media shows. The arrival marks the latest in an increasing buildup of military assets in the region to pressure Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro and for what seems increasingly likely to be a contingency for a sustained kinetic operation over Venezuela.

You can catch up with our latest coverage on Operation Southern Spear in the Caribbean here.

The Compass Call landed 10 p.m. on Saturday at the Luis Muñoz Marin International Airport in Puerto Rico, the videographer, an aircraft spotter who uses the Instagram handle Pinchito.Avgeek, told us. Other aircraft spotters told The War Zone that this is the first confirmed Compass Call to be seen in Puerto Rico as of late. The airport is also home to the Puerto Rico Air National Guard’s 156th Wing and has seen C-17 Globemaster III and other military aircraft operating there for Southern Spear.

While there are a number of C-130 Hercules variants in Puerto Rico, a screencap of that video shows that antennas under the tail and on top of the aircraft behind the cockpit conclusively show this is an EC-130H Compass Call.

Though the Air Force is phasing these aircraft out in favor of EA-37B Compass Call jets, the EC-130H brings capabilities that would be called upon for an attack on Venezuela should one be ordered. The heavily modified C-130 Hercules cargo planes carry a suite of electronic attack gear that can find and track “emitters” like radios and radars and then scramble their signals. This equipment can also jam cell phones.

The equipment aboard the Compass Call would help to blind Venezuelan air defenses, communications and command and control, making it harder to respond to attacks by combat aircraft and cruise missiles. The four-engine aircraft can fly for many hours without refueling and much longer with tanker support, giving U.S. Southern Command a long-loitering airborne EW platform.

As we noted in an earlier story: “Previous iterations of the EC-130H-based Compass Call system have proven their value in combat zones on multiple occasions in the past two decades. A contingent of these aircraft was continuously forward-deployed in the Middle East, from where they also supported operations in Afghanistan, between 2001 and 2021. EC-130Hs supported the raid that led to the death of Al Qaeda founder Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan in 2011 and prevented the detonation of an improvised explosive device that might have killed then-Maj. Gen. James Mattis, who later rose to the rank of General and also served as Secretary of Defense under Trump, in Iraq in 2003, among many other exploits, according to a recent story from Air Force Times.”

The current status and location of the Compass Call are not publicly known. The videographer told us he only saw it land. A U.S. official we spoke with could not comment on the arrival of the EC-130H but told us that there have been no new military orders for Southern Spear.

The EC-130H joins a squadron of E/A-18G Growler electronic attack jets, deployed on the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford, as well as another squadron on land, as airborne electronic warfare assets now operating in the Caribbean. While Compass Calls offer some overlapping capabilities and some significantly different ones than the Growlers, the arrival of the EC-130J is another indication that electronic warfare is clearly taking a lopsided focus compared to the size of the rest of the fighting force deployed in the region.

While it is unclear if the Compass Call has performed any of its offensive operations yet, both the U.S. and Venezuela are using defensive jamming to protect assets. This has become an increasing problem for the region as tensions rise.

“At least some of the U.S. warships that have deployed to the Caribbean in recent months have been jamming GPS signals in their vicinity,” The New York Times reported, citing an analysis of data provided by Stanford University and a U.S. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss operational matters.

In an effort to protect important resources, “the armed forces of President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela have jammed the GPS signals around the country’s critical infrastructure, including military bases, oil refineries and power plants,” the publication noted, citing an analysis by Spire Global, a satellite data firm.

Combined, the jamming is raising concerns for aviation.

“Whether jamming is due to the U.S. or Venezuelan forces, it really doesn’t matter: You don’t want an aircraft going in there,” Gen. Willie Shelton, the former head of the U.S. Air Force’s Space Command, told The Times.

As for the EC-130Hs, the aircraft is being retired from the Air Force inventory.

“Currently, the U.S. Air Force is operating and maintaining eight EC-130H aircraft,” Capt. Ridge Miller, a spokesperson for Air Combat Command (ACC) told The War Zone Monday afternoon. “A total of 10 EA-37B aircraft are on track to be delivered while simultaneously retiring the EC-130H fleet in a phased approach. Both platforms currently operate out of the 55th Electronic Combat Group at Davis Monthan AFB in Arizona.”

The EA-37B is based on a heavily modified version of the Gulfstream G550 airframe.

In addition to the Compass Call, other C-130 variants are operating out of Puerto Rico. One of which is the Marine Corps’ KC-130J Hercules tanker/transport aircraft. The KC-130Js uses the probe-and-drogue method for Navy and Marine Corps aircraft, and is used to refuel fixed-wing fighter aircraft and helicopters.

Plane spotter @LatAmMilMovements told us that at least one of these aircraft, and sometimes two, have had a steady presence ever since Marine F-35B Lightnings arrived in Puerto Rico in September. This matches the imagery and satellite photos we have seen of the installation for months now. AV-8B Harriers, MV-22 Ospreys, and CH-53 Sea Stallions, all from the USS Iwo Jima and its flotilla, are also using the base regularly and they can all refuel from the KC-130J.

Air Force HC-130J Combat King II combat search and rescue (CSAR) planes are also flying out of Puerto Rico. Traditionally, they provide fuel to HH-60W Jolly Green Giant II CSAR helicopters, CV-22 Ospreys, and, to a lesser degree, the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR) helicopters.

These types are just part of a growing fleet of aerial refuelers in the region. The Air Force has also deployed KC-135 Stratotankers and KC-46 Pegasus tankers to the Dominican Republic and U.S. Virgin Islands.

As more tanker aircraft arrive in Puerto Rico, they are also building up at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida. Aerial images show at least 28 KC-135s at the base. The image also shows at least two E-3 Sentry Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft are operating from MacDill, located about 1,400 miles northwest of Venezuela. As we pointed out last week, at least one Sentry was recently tracked on FlightRadar24 flying close to the Venezuelan coast. 

While E-3s may have been present but not trackable over the Caribbean in recent days, this one being trackable was not a mistake. U.S. military aircraft executing easily trackable sorties very near Venezuelan airspace have been a key component of the pressure campaign placed on Maduro. 

In addition to the growing military pressure on the Venezuelan leader, the U.S. is also raising the stakes economically. Since President Donald Trump declared a blockade against sanctioned oil tankers, U.S. authorities have seized two tankers. On Sunday, the Coast Guard was in “active pursuit” of the massive tanker Bella 1 after it refused to submit to U.S. seizure efforts. The status of that effort was unclear as of Monday afternoon. We have reached out to the Coast Guard for more details.

Though the military and economic pressure are building on Maduro, Trump’s exact intentions remain an open question, although they appear to be becoming clearer by the day. During his announcement of the new Trump class battleships Monday afternoon, the president again said that the U.S. would soon be going after drug cartels on land; however, he explained that would not just be focused on Venezuela.

Contact the author: howard@thewarzone.com

As the year comes to an end, a deal between the Syrian government and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces was expected to come into force.

Instead, fighting has erupted between the two sides in the northern city of Aleppo.

They later agreed to stop the fighting, while blaming each other for the violence.

That deal was supposed to lead to the SDF integrating with the army, but it is stalling on how that should be implemented.

This renewed tension comes as Damascus faces other threats, ranging from ISIL (ISIS) to recurrent conflicts with the Druze community and continuing attacks by Israel.

So what does this complex security situation mean for Syria, a year after the fall of Bashar al-Assad?

Presenter: Dareen Abughaida

Guests

Haid Haid – Researcher at Chatham House

Steven Heydemann – Professor and Middle East Studies programme director at Smith College

Omer Ozkizilcik – Nonresident fellow for the Syria project in the Atlantic Council’s Middle East programme