west

“It’s an exciting challenge. We know that the club is not at the place that it should be, but I’m here to help the team and to bring what I can to achieve our goal.”

Disasi has not played for more than a year for Chelsea and was placed in the club’s so‑called “bomb squad” after failing to secure a move last summer and deemed surplus to requirements by former head coach Enzo Maresca.

He later worked his way back into the under‑21s and first‑team training, although he did not make a senior appearance.

Disasi joined Chelsea from Monaco in 2023 in a £38m deal and spent the second half of last season on loan at Aston Villa.

But he is determined to prove his worth at West Ham as he added: “The club has given me the opportunity to show my quality on the pitch. I spoke with all the people here, and I feel that they really wanted me, so that’s why I’m here.

“Everyone knows my situation in the last few months, so I just want to get back on the field, feel the sensation of games and help the team.”

Israeli occupation authorities have intensified their campaign of forced displacement across the occupied West Bank, issuing expulsion orders to an entire Bedouin community east of Ramallah and escalating demolition policies in occupied East Jerusalem.

The measures come amid a surge in settler violence targeting educational institutions in the Jordan Valley and residential homes in Qalqilya, further shrinking the living space for Palestinians under military occupation.

‘Zone of expulsion’

On Sunday morning, Israeli forces raided the Abu Najeh al-Kaabneh Bedouin community in al-Mughayyir village, east of Ramallah.

Local sources confirmed to the Wafa news agency that soldiers delivered a military order requiring the community’s 40 residents to dismantle their homes and leave the area within 48 hours. The army declared the site a “closed military zone”, a tactic frequently used to clear Palestinian land for settlement expansion.

During the raid, Israeli troops arrested three foreign solidarity activists attempting to document the eviction order.

The expulsion order is part of a widening campaign of ethnic cleansing in the region. It follows the complete displacement of the Shallal al-Auja community north of Jericho, which concluded on Saturday. After years of systematic harassment, the last three families of the community were forced to leave, marking the erasure of a presence that once included 120 families.

Al-Aqsa provocations

In occupied East Jerusalem, Israel’s municipal policies of urban restriction continued to displace Palestinians.

On Sunday, Yasser Maher Dana, a Palestinian resident of the Jabal Mukaber neighbourhood, was coerced into demolishing his 100-square-metre (1,076-square-foot) home. The structure, located in the al-Salaa district, housed four family members.

Israeli authorities routinely force Palestinians in East Jerusalem to execute their own demolition orders to avoid paying exorbitant fees charged by municipal crews and forces if they carry out the destruction themselves. These demolitions are justified by a lack of building permits, which rights groups say are nearly impossible for Palestinians to obtain in the city.

Simultaneously, in Silwan, south of Al-Aqsa Mosque, the municipality issued a demolition order for a residential room belonging to the al-Taweel family, granting them a 10-day deadline. This follows notices issued three days before demolishing two homes belonging to brothers in the Wadi Qaddum neighbourhood.

Tensions also rose at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, stormed by dozens of Israeli settlers under heavy police protection. According to the Jerusalem governorate, the incursion included a provocative “wedding blessing” ritual performed by settlers for a bride in the courtyards, a violation of the site’s status quo.

Settlers attack schools and homes

In the northern Jordan Valley, Israeli settlers, backed by the military, disrupted the school day at the al-Maleh School.

Azmi Balawneh, the director of education in Tubas, reported that settlers blocked teachers from reaching the school, which serves children from the vulnerable Bedouin communities of al-Hadidiya, Makhoul, and Samra.

This harassment coincides with the establishment of a new illegal settlement outpost in the al-Maleh area just a week ago. In the nearby Khirbet Samra, settlers erected a new tent on Sunday morning to seize more pastoral land.

Meanwhile, in the village of Faraata, east of Qalqilya, settlers from the illegal “Havat Gilad” outpost attacked the home of Hijazi Yamin.

Yamin told Wafa that settlers pelted his house and unleashed an attack dog on his family, trapping his wife and seven children inside.

“We live in a constant state of insecurity,” Yamin said, noting this was the second attack in a week. “I am afraid to leave my wife and children alone or let them go to school.”

Military raids and closures

Israeli forces conducted multiple raids across the West Bank on Sunday, arresting at least four Palestinians. In Hebron, two brothers were arrested following a raid on their family home. More arrests were reported in the village of Duma, south of Nablus, and in the town of al-Ubeidiya, east of Bethlehem.

In the northern city of Jenin, military vehicles stormed the city centre and the Jabel Abu Dhuhair neighbourhood. During the incursion, troops deliberately destroyed street vendors’ carts at the Cinema Roundabout, targeting the local economy.

Movement restrictions also tightened significantly. For the second consecutive day, the Israeli army closed the main entrance to Turmus Aya, north of Ramallah, and blocked the Atara military checkpoint since the early morning hours, severing connections between northern and central West Bank cities. According to the Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission, Israel now operates 916 military checkpoints and gates throughout the West Bank.

“We want to take Swansea to the Premier League, and to do that we are going to need money – that’s the reality of the game these days.

“I want to introduce sponsorship deals and publicity that will make them a global name.”

The West Coast rapper has sold more than 30 million albums worldwide but is yet to attend a Swansea game, though his son Cordell Broadus was in the directors’ box for the Welsh side’s draw with Watford last August.

American billionaire businesswoman Martha Stewart, who joined Snoop Dogg and Real Madrid legend Luka Modric as a Swansea co-owner in December, was in Wales for the game against Wrexham just before Christmas.

Swansea have said Snoop Dogg is likely to attend a game at some point this season, though there is still no confirmation of when he may appear at the Swansea.com Stadium.

“For real I want to meet with the fans,” Snoop Dogg said.

“These fans are passionate, they are real, and I want to hear what they got to say when I am in Swansea.

“I knew I always wanted to invest in a soccer team – it’s been a dream of mine for years, it was all about waiting for the right opportunity.”

Modric was the first celebrity name to get involved at Swansea, with the former Ballon d’Or winner named as a co-owner last April.

Swansea’s American owners, led by Brett Cravatt and Jason Cohen, believe bringing in high-profile names at boardroom level will help increase the profile the club which will in turn boost income.

West Ham midfielder James Ward-Prowse is expected to undergo a medical with Burnley on Wednesday as he closes in on a loan move.

Ward-Prowse, 31, joined the Hammers from Southampton in August 2023 and has made 78 appearances.

The England international was loaned to Nottingham Forest for the 2024-25 season and played 10 times under then manager Nuno Espirito Santo, but the deal was cut short during the winter transfer window.

He was a regular under former West Ham manager Graham Potter and made six appearances this season before Potter was sacked in September.

Ward-Prowse has not played a single minute of football since Nuno was brought in at West Ham.

Burnley sit 19th in the Premier League and are 10 points from safety following Saturday’s 2-2 draw against Tottenham. The 18th-placed Hammers are five points above the Clarets.

Burnley manager Scott Parker brought in 18-year-old defender Cameron Scott from Rangers earlier this month but is looking to add experience with Ward-Prowse.

Ward-Prowse came through Southampton’s academy and made 410 appearances before leaving for West Ham.

The date was Dec. 20. It was the day everything changed for the Clippers.

Kawhi Leonard has been the leading scorer in the NBA since, averaging 31.8 points per game. James Harden has averaged 25.1 points in that stretch. The Clippers have the best scoring differential in the Western Conference over that span. They’ve been rolling.

This is where Robert Flom enters the story.

Flom is a blogger who covers the Clippers, and Dec. 20 was when he wrote the following on X: “If they go 15-3 in any stretch this season will print and eat this tweet.”

The Clippers have gone 15-3 since. True to his word, Flom printed the tweet Monday and ate it.

“Pretty crunchy,” he said.

Social media wasn’t around in 1953 or 1985, which means it’s highly unlikely anyone in Baltimore or Cleveland had to endure a crunchy moment like the one Flom put himself through on Monday night.

The 1952-53 Baltimore Bullets got into the playoffs by finishing fourth in a five-team division, in a year when eight of the NBA’s 10 teams made the postseason. The 1984-85 Cleveland Cavaliers got into the playoffs despite spending more than three months of that season holding down last place in the Eastern Conference.

Both teams started those seasons with 6-21 records. Of the 121 teams that started an NBA season with a record that bad or worse, including five this season, those Bullets (who finished 16-54) and Cavaliers (who finished 36-46) are the only two that wound up reaching the postseason.

The Clippers started 6-21 this season. The playoffs were a million miles away. Not anymore.

Going into Tuesday’s game at Utah, the Clippers are three games under .500 at 21-24. They are 10th in the West, but that would be enough to get them into the play-in tournament and give them a chance at a playoff berth.

For a team that was a half-game out of last place in the West a couple of days before Christmas, just getting back to play-in range this soon represents a minor miracle.

“We’re confident, we’re playing well, but we’ve still got to play better,” Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said after Sunday’s 126-89 romp over the Brooklyn Nets. “We still have to run through the tape and continue to execute the right way. … Overall, we’re playing well. We’ve got to keep it going.”

The Clippers, to their credit, were aware of Flom’s tweet. The Clippers’ social media team had a blast with it — all in good fun, like the tweet itself — and players couldn’t help but react when they got that 15th win in 18 games that ensured Flom would be chewing on paper for a half-hour or so.

“We gotta get him on camera,” Lue said.

“I don’t know how healthy that is for you,” Leonard said.

Clippers fans got into the act as well, chanting “eat the tweet” during Sunday’s game. It’s a feel-good story, such as it is. And there have been a few of those in the NBA this season.

Among them: Toronto started slowly but is vying for home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs now. BetMGM Sportsbook had Phoenix’s over-under for wins this season at 30.5; the Suns have already won 27 games. The Celtics, even without Jayson Tatum, are No. 2 in the East, something few outside Boston probably expected.

The Clippers were supposed to be good, like title-contending good. Starting 6-21 was beyond unexpected. Then again, so was the turnaround. And the tweet is a neat part of why everyone seems happy in Clipperland these days, after tons of drama going back to the summer.

There was a probe of whether a business relationship between Leonard and a California company was legitimate or merely a way for the Clippers to circumvent salary cap rules, then Chris Paul being sent home in a stunning early December move, and a whole lot of losing.

Now, there’s a whole lot of winning. For the record, Flom now says the Clippers will finish 45-37. The way they’re playing, he might not have to eat those words.

Ye, the provocative rapper formerly known as Kanye West, explains himself once again — this time in a full-page ad in Monday’s issue of the Wall Street Journal.

The Grammy-winning musician penned a lengthy apology in the advertisement, voicing regrets for his social media attacks on Jewish people and his public embracing of Nazism in recent years. He began his letter detailing injuries from a 2002 car accident, including a frontal-lobe injury he says led to his bipolar type-1 diagnosis. Ye wrote that, in the throes of the disorder, “I gravitated toward the most destructive symbol I could find, the swastika.”

He said: “I lost touch with reality. Things got worse the longer I ignored the problem. I said and did things I deeply regret.”

The “Power” and “I Love Kanye” musician, 48, has long had a history of stirring controversy, but notably began facing waves of scrutiny for embracing white supremacy, fawning over Adolf Hitler and threatening violence to Jewish people on social media in late 2022. Though his professional life seemed to take blows, West continued embracing Nazi symbolism in the following years, in 2025 selling a swastika-bearing T-shirt and releasing a single titled “Heil Hitler.” West had also allegedly told a former employee, who is Jewish, that he was a “Nazi” and compared himself to their leaderAdolf Hitler, according to a lawsuit filed last year.

“Some of the people I love the most, I treated the worst,” he continued. “You endured fear, confusion, humiliation, and the exhaustion of trying to love someone who was at times, unrecognizable. Looking back, I became detached from my true self.”

The musician said his disorder led him to moments of “poor judgment and reckless behavior,” some he said he can’t recall. The rapper said he is “committed to accountability, treatment, and meaningful change” and denied that he is “a Nazi or an antisemite.”

West also extended his apologies to the Black community, which he wrote is the “foundation of who I am.”

West (he legally changed his name to Ye in 2021) wrote that early last year he experienced a “four-month manic episode of psychotic, paranoid and impulsive behavior that destroyed my life.” He said there were moments during this episode when “I didn’t want to be here anymore.” West said after “hitting rock bottom” he began seeking help, with the encouragement of wife Bianca Censori. He said he also has since found solace in Reddit, where he said users shared their experiences with manic and depressive episodes.

West said he is moving forward with “much-needed clarity” reached by a routine of medication, therapy, exercise and “clean living.” He added that he is also focused on “positive, meaningful art” including music, clothing and other ventures “to help the world.” He said he is not seeking “sympathy, or a free pass,” but rather forgiveness and patience “as I find my way home.”

West previously opened up about his mental state last year, telling “The Download” podcast that he learned “it’s really a case of autism that I have.” At the time, he also told podcast host Justin Laboy that he had stopped taking his bipolar medication since learning it wasn’t the “right diagnosis.”

Days after his podcast interview, West fired off several antisemitic tweets that have since been deleted. In other posts, he also called for the release of Sean “Diddy” Combs amid the mogul’s sex trafficking case and declared his “dominion” over Censori. Following those posts, Ye returned to X (formerly Twitter) and thanked the app’s owner Elon Musk for giving him a platform.

“It has been very cathartic to use the world as a sounding board,” the rapper said at the time.