Crystal Palace co-owner John Textor has said he feared the club’s participation in Europe would be in doubt moments after they won the FA Cup in May.
Textor’s involvement with both Palace and French club Lyon looks set to cost the Eagles a spot in the Europa League under Uefa’s rules governing multi-club ownership.
Textor has agreed to sell his 43% stake in Palace to fellow American Woody Johnson, who owns NFL team the New York Jets.
Asked what he went through his mind after Palace beat Manchester City at Wembley, Textor told Talksport: “I was very happy, but I felt the gravity of it. And I was concerned on the same day holding the cup next to the Prince [William].
“It was a great moment and I couldn’t have been happier for the fans, but yeah, I was worried about what was coming.”
This week Lyon won an appeal against their relegation from Ligue 1 because of the club’s poor financial state.
French football authorities demoted the seven-time champions into Ligue 2 last month, but that decision has been overturned.
It could affect Palace’s chances of playing in the Europa League next season as Lyon have also qualified for the competition, with Uefa set to rule on the situation at the end of the week.
Textor stressed that while he has “helped” the club, his role at Selhurst Park has not been a majorly active one.
“I help a lot. I showed up during Covid and paid off Covid debt. I helped finish the academy,” he added.
“I am sitting there on the board with four other guys. Steve Parish is making the decisions and bringing us players. He involves us but he doesn’t really listen to us.
“A suggestion from time to time is not the same as decisive influence.”
US Treasury says it removed 518 Syrian individuals and entities from its list of sanctions after president’s decree.
Washington, DC – United States President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to dismantle a web of sanctions against Syria, a move that will likely unlock investments in the country more than six months after the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad.
Trump’s decree on Monday offers sanction relief to “entities critical to Syria’s development, the operation of its government, and the rebuilding of the country’s social fabric”, the US Treasury said in a statement.
The Syrian government has been under heavy US financial penalties that predate the outbreak of the civil war in the country in 2011.
The sprawling sanction programme, which included provisions related to the former government’s human rights abuses, has derailed reconstruction efforts in the country. It has also contributed to driving the Syrian economy under al-Assad to the verge of collapse.
Trump promised sanctions relief for Syria during his visit to the Middle East in May.
“The United States is committed to supporting a Syria that is stable, unified, and at peace with itself and its neighbours,” the US president said in a statement on Monday.
“A united Syria that does not offer a safe haven for terrorist organisations and ensures the security of its religious and ethnic minorities will support regional security and prosperity.”
The US administration said Syria-related sanctions against al-Assad and his associates, ISIL (ISIS) and Iran and its allies will remain in place.
While the US Treasury said it already removed 518 Syrian individuals and entities from its list of sanctions, some Syria penalties may not be revoked immediately.
For example, Trump directs US agencies to determine whether the conditions are met to remove sanctions imposed under the Caesar Act, which enabled heavy penalties against the Syrian economy for alleged war crimes against civilians.
Democratic US Congresswoman Ilhan Omar had partnered with Republican lawmaker Anna Paulina Luna to introduce earlier this week a bill that would legislatively lift sanctions on Syria to offer long-term relief.
Real relief for the Syrian people requires repealing certain laws.
My bill with @RepLuna permanently repeals the sanctions and gives the post-Assad Syria a fighting chance. https://t.co/gExbLiKS7z
As part of Trump’s order, the US president ordered Secretary of State Marco Rubio to review the designation of interim Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa as a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist”.
Moreover, the US president ordered a review of the status of al-Sharaa’s group, al-Nusra Front – now Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) – as a designated “foreign terrorist” organisation. Al-Nusra was al-Qaeda’s branch in Syria, but al-Sharaa severed ties with the group in 2016.
Al-Nusra later became known as Jabhat Fath al-Sham before merging with other rebel groups as HTS.
Al-Sharaa was the de facto leader of a rebel enclave in Idlib in northwest Syria for years before leading the offensive that overthrew al-Assad in December 2024.
Trump met with al-Sharaa in Saudi Arabia in May and praised the Syrian president as “attractive” and “tough”.
The interim Syrian president – who was previously known by his nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Julani – has promised inclusive governance to allay concerns about his past ties to al-Qaeda.
But violence and kidnappings against members of al-Assad’s Alawite sect by former rebel fighters over the past months have raised concerns among some rights advocates.
Al-Sharaa has also pledged that Syria would not pose a threat to its neighbours, including Israel, which has been advancing in Syrian territory beyond the occupied Golan Heights and regularly bombing the country.
During his rookie season, Rams edge rusher Jared Verse established himself as one of the NFL’s most boisterous players — and also a force to be reckoned with ala former Rams star Aaron Donald.
So it should be no surprise that Verse, the NFL defensive rookie of the year, unabashedly if not kiddingly sounded Wednesday as if he was challenging Donald, a future Hall of Famer and legendary training maven, to a workout duel.
During an appearance on the “Adam Schefter Podcast,” Verse was asked if he could work out with Donald during the offseason.
“No, he don’t want that,” Verse said. “He’s not ready for that.”
Verse did not stop.
“That little 500 bench he had. He’s not ready for that,” Verse said. “Hey, I’ll be moving weight. I’ll be moving weight.”
So Donald can’t keep up with you right now? Schefter asked.
“Hey, whenever he’s ready for a workout,” Verse said. “Man, I’ll be seeing his little Instagram posts, the benches, the dumbbell benches. Hey, he can get me whenever he’s ready.”
“Somebody put the word out,” Donald said. “I’m looking for you, Verse. I’m looking for you. Come to the house. I just want to talk. I just want to talk, that’s it.
“Nothing much, big dog. That’s it. Just a little conversation. Put in a little weights. Do a little cardio. You know, the old-man retirement workout. Let’s put you through it. See what you can do. I just want to talk. Come on, I just want to talk.”
AS KING Canute found over a thousand years ago, it is quite difficult to stand on a beach and order the tide to recede.
Today, it is equally difficult to make the argument that giving families cash is not always the best way of lifting them out of poverty.
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David Blunkett grew up on just bread and dropping at home – but he is warning that lifting the 2 child benefit cap is not the best way to tackle povertyCredit: Alamy
This is especially true when one particular measure becomes the symbol of whether or not you’re on the right side of the debate about child poverty.
But as someone who now can afford the comforts of life, I constantly remind myself of my childhood.
The grinding poverty that I experienced when my father was killed in a work accident when I was 12 – leaving my mother, who had serious health problems, to fight a long battle for minimal compensation.
Having only bread and dripping in the house was, by anyone’s standards, a hallmark of absolute poverty.
Why on earth would I question, therefore, the morality of reversing a Tory policy introduced eight years ago?
This restricts the additional supplement to universal credit – worth over £3,000 a child per year – to just two children.
I should know, my friends tell me, that the easiest and quickest way of overcoming the growth in child poverty is to restore the £3.5 billion pounds it would cost to give this additional money for all the children in every family entitled to the credit.
It is true that the policy, introduced in 2017, failed its first test.
Women did not stop having more than two children even when they were strapped for cash. It is still unclear why.
After all, many people have to make a calculation as to how many children they can afford.
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Keir Starmer is under massive pressure form Labour backbench MPs to lift the 2 child benefit cap and go on a new welfare spending spreeCredit: AP
But one thing must be certain: namely, that if you give parents a relatively substantial additional amount of money for every child they have whilst entitled to benefits, they are likely to have more children.
Nigel Farage, leader of Reform UK, said as much last week. His argument for restoring the benefit to the third and subsequent children was precisely that we needed to persuade low- income families to have more children.
Surely having children that you cannot afford to feed is the legacy of a bygone era?
All those earning below £60,000 are entitled to the basic child benefit, so the argument is about just over £60 a week extra per child.
One difficulty in having a sensible debate about what really works in overcoming intergenerational poverty is the lack of reliable statistics.
Some people have claimed, over recent days, that over 50 per cent of children in Manchester and Birmingham live in poverty.
I fear that such claims should be treated with scepticism.
Those struggling to make ends meet – sometimes having not just one but two jobs – who pay their taxes and national insurance and plan their lives around what can be afforded, have the right to question where their hard-earned wages go.
The simple and obvious truth is that child poverty springs from the lack of income of the adults who care for them.
Transforming their lives impacts directly on the children in their family.
There is a limit to how much money taxpayers are willing to hand over to pay for another family’s children.
Helping them to help themselves is a different matter.
So, what would I do?
Firstly, I would ensure that families with a disabled youngster automatically have the entitlement restored.
This would self-evidently apply also to multiple births.
In both cases, life is not only more difficult, it is also harder to get and keep a job.
I would come down like a ton of bricks on absent parents.
My mum was a single parent because she was widowed; many others are single in the sense that the other partner has walked away.
The Child Maintenance Service should step up efforts to identify and pursue absent parents who do not pay their fair share towards their child.
We, the community, have a clear duty to support and assist those in need.
To help those where a helping hand will restore them to independence and self-reliance.
But there is an obligation on individuals as well as the State, and mutual help starts with individuals taking some responsibility for themselves.
Finally, if (and this is where I am in full agreement with colleagues campaigning to dramatically reduce child poverty) we make substantial sums of money available to overcome hardship, then a comprehensive approach to supporting the families must surely be the best way to achieve this.
As ever in politics there is a trade off. What you spend on handing over cash is not available to invest in public services: that is the reality.
Help from the moment a child is born, not just with childcare but with nurturing and child development.
Dedicated backing to gain skills and employment and to taper the withdrawal of help so that it genuinely becomes worthwhile having and keeping a job.
A contract between the taxpayer and the individual or household. Government is about difficult choices, that is why Keir Starmer and his colleagues are agonising over what to do next.
Angela Rayner says lifting 2-child benefit cap not ‘silver bullet’ for ending poverty after demanding cuts for millions
Syrians are hoping sanctions relief will help boost investment, reconstruction after more than a decade of civil war.
Business owners in Syria have welcomed the European Union’s decision this week to lift sanctions on the country, in what observers say is the most significant easing of Western pressure on Damascus in more than a decade.
The EU’s move, which followed a similar announcement by the United States in mid-May, was praised by Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani as one that would bolster Syria’s security and stability.
For many Syrian entrepreneurs, it also brings the hope of rebuilding their livelihoods after years of economic isolation.
“Companies that were ousted from Syria and stopped dealing with us because of the sanctions are now in contact with us,” Hassan Bandakji, a local business owner, told Al Jazeera.
“Many companies and producers are telling us they are coming back and that they want to reserve a spot in our market.”
The EU and US sanctions had levied wide-ranging sanctions against the government of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who was removed from power in a rebel offensive in December of last year.
The economic curbs had severely limited trade, investment, and financial transactions in Syria, cutting businesses off from supplies and international banking.
“The main obstacle we faced was getting raw materials and automated lines,” said Ali Sheikh Kweider, who manages a factory in the countryside of the Syrian capital, Damascus.
“As for bank accounts, we weren’t able to send or receive any transactions,” Kweider told Al Jazeera.
Syria’s new government, led by ex-rebel leader and interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, had called for the sanctions to be lifted as it seeks to rebuild the country.
US President Donald Trump said after a meeting with al-Sharaa in Saudi Arabia last week that he planned to order the lifting of American sanctions on Syria.
Reporting from Damascus, Al Jazeera’s Mahmoud Abdelwahed said the government is hoping the sanctions relief will help Syria reintegrate into the international community.
It also views the EU’s announcement as additional “recognition of the new political leadership” in the country, Abdelwahed added.
Celebrations broke out across Syria after President Donald Trump said the United States would lift sanctions on the country.
The Syrian foreign ministry on Tuesday welcomed Trump’s announcement, calling it a “pivotal turning point for the Syrian people, as we seek to emerge from a long and painful chapter of war”.
“The removal of those sanctions offers a vital opportunity for Syria to pursue stability, self-sufficiency, and meaningful national reconstruction, led by and for the Syrian people,” it said in a statement.
In a speech given in Riyadh, the US president said he “will be ordering the cessation of sanctions against Syria in order to give them a chance at greatness”.
US sanctions have isolated Syria from the global financial system and imposed a range of economic restrictions on the government over more than a decade of war in the country.
The lingering sanctions have widely been seen as a major obstacle to Syria’s economic recovery and post-war reconstruction.
Syrians met the news with joy and celebration, with dozens of men, women and children gathering in Damascus’s Umayyad Square. They blasted music while others drove by in their cars, waving Syrian flags.
“My joy is great, this decision will definitely affect the entire country positively. Construction will return, the displaced will return and prices will go down,” said Huda Qassar, a 33-year-old English language teacher, celebrating with her compatriots.
In the northern province of Idlib, Bassam al-Ahmed, 39, said he was very happy about the announcement.
“It is the right of the Syrian people, after 14 years of war and 50 years of the Assads’ oppression, to live through stability and safety,” he said.
Mazloum Abdi, also known as Mazloum Kobani, the leader of the US-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, welcomed the decision, saying he hopes it “will be invested in supporting stability and reconstruction, ensuring a better future for all Syrians”.
