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https://www.ft.com/content/8cb026eb-5141-426e-af4f-611406077ab4?syn-25a6b1a6=1

The club's wage bill has risen to become one of the highest in world football, reaching £347mn last season.

Trump's family has made over 1bn USD from grift since he took office

Where to start after all that drama?

The 2026 Leinster Championship was certainly memorable, for a variety of reasons.  It's fair to say that the competition has received a massive shot in the arm, last year and now, from the novelty of Louth and Westmeath ending Dublin's hegemony.

Westmeath's ascent to the summit is scarcely believable, even for ardent Westmeath fans.  It started with an excellent performance over Longford, which primed us for the stunning ambush of Meath, for just the second time ever.  Momentum was built with the battling victory and resilience demonstrated in overcoming Kildare, for just the third time ever.

The bookies offered 11/2 for the final with Dublin 1/7.  The consensus was that Dublin had reignited the flame against Louth and would prevail.  A Westmeath victory would be our fourth over Dublin. A pattern was emerging.

The mood in Westmeath was a bit different to the perceived wisdom.  The level of confidence on the ground was quietly growing.  Our status in the League wasn't reflected in the opinion that we could have a real shot at Dublin.  In many ways it was a free hit for Westmeath and the narrative was that the team was going to really turn up.  The public responded in a similar fashion.

Mark McHugh has done an incredible job in changing the mindset.  The team was on a mission.  2004 was used as a positive motivation.  It was time to create a new story.  The loss of Luke Loughlin allowed/forced others to step up.  McHugh seemed to take inspiration from Paul Galvin and John Heslin came back into the setup.  This was agreed by the group and reflected Heslin's sensational scoring rate at club level. 
The brittleness in evidence during the League has diminished and the team has demonstrated incredible resolve and adherence to the plan.  The contrast with the mood before the finals in 2015/2016 could not have been greater.  The momentum, within the team and among the general public, was very strong.

The final was a truly wonderful occasion for Westmeath.  Croke Park was a sea of maroon as the Dublin support never materialised. It seemed that there were at least twice as many Westmeath fans as Dubs.  The players seemed to feed off this energy and the intensity was immense.

I thought Dublin were really hindered by the loss of Ó Cofaigh Byrne.  The balance changed in the middle.  Brian Howard battled incredibly hard but eventually ran out of steam.  This gave Westmeath a platform.  Dublin showed glimpses of their previous excellence but couldn't push on.  Westmeath kept them close and then then slowly squeezed Dublin.  The late switch in momentum was temporary as Westmeath wrested back the initiative in extra time.

Dublin were unable to reproduce the energy of the Louth game.  The general performance was muted at times.  Dublin were outfought in some situations. This will be a concern if it's not eradicated quickly.  The loss of Con and Murchan was obvious.  I think Ger Brennan's ban has really hurt the team.  Leadership was provided by the older players, but it seemed at times as if Westmeath had more players on the pitch.

Westmeath had heroes all over the field.  Thirteen players scored.  The defence was incredible, aided by really impressive fitness. The willingness to work was astounding.  This comes down to the spirit instilled by McHugh.  Players took responsibility continuously.  In the endgame, Wallace, McCartan, Heslin and Allen showed real composure. Connellan's departure was not an issue.  The team at last managed the clock down properly.

Heslin's cameo was a success. An error in front of goal was forgotten as he started claiming marks, winning dirty ball, providing a constant outlet and arching over a fabulous two point score.

When the dust settles, a few interesting stats emerge.

Westmeath scored 13 goals in the four matches, with seven players contributing. Amazingly we conceded just one goal during this sequence.  That occurred after five minutes in the Longford game.    Westmeath subsequently played another five hours and fifteen minutes without conceding a goal.  There's obviously an element of luck involved, but this gives an insight into the concentration and commitment to keep the goal intact.

Similarly six players hit nine 'two point' scores in these matches.  We conceded 14 of these, although Longford scored six of that total.

Luke Loughlin has been our talisman, however the load has been shared in his absence.  The team has grown remarkably.  13 players scored against Dublin, similar to the Kildare game.  It had been 12 against Longford and nine against Meath.  Others filled the void.

The tight battles will prove invaluable in terms of lessons learned and experienced gained.  Players that have low numbers of games have come through high pressure moments.  It's exciting to see what can be achieved as the team develops in the next few campaigns.

The release of emotion after the achievement was immense.  This is understandable when one considers the history of Westmeath GAA.  These lads have achieved immortality in our little patch.  The celebrations are ongoing.  McHugh's next significant task will be to refocus for the All Ireland series.  It will be interesting to see how he manages.  The energy will change again, subtly, but definitely.  How will this manifest itself?  Will the manic effort be sustained?  How will the team fare as they reset and start again?  Interesting times.

Dermot McCabe will no doubt have a strategy to ask some hard questions.

What a fabuluous read. I thought the celebrations after the Tailteann meant a lot but a Leinster is  completely different

Burnham

https://x.com/ITVNewsPolitics/status/2056293231525019950

The definition is vague and doesn't mention Israel. The examples do.

In reality Zionists call anything they don't like antisemitic. Bringing up facts like genocide or apartheid is deemed antisemitic.

Zionists are not accountable for anything.

Jason Burt
Arne Slot should drop Mohamed Salah for Liverpool's final game
Anfield will always treat its 'Egyptian King' as a hero but he has to pay a price for trying to weaponise fans against the head coach


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Arne Slot and Mohamed Salah
Arne Slot does not need to bow to Mohamed Salah's extraordinary record at Liverpool for Sunday's farewell: he has to sideline him for the sake of his own credibility Credit: Phil Noble/Reuters
Jason Burt
Chief Football Correspondent
Jason Burt
Jason Burt is one of the most senior and decorated football writers in the UK. See more

Published 18 May 2026 2:36pm BST
Arne Slot should drop Mohamed Salah for Liverpool's final Premier League game of the season. The head coach, backed by the club, needs to assert his authority.

Champions League qualification might be secured by then, so Sunday's match at home against Brentford will have less riding on it than was feared after the difficult defeat by Aston Villa on Friday.

That might make it easier for Slot to select Salah and that would be the generous thing to do, giving him the send-off that he would deserve. But Salah has forfeited that right after his social media post on Saturday. It was 190 words long, but can be summarised in two: Sack Slot.

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Also, in those 190 words Salah writes "I" 10 times – which has not gone unnoticed at Liverpool – and "me and my" three times. OK, it was a personal statement. But it was not selfless and it could have waited. Salah made it all about him at a moment of weakness and vulnerability for Slot and for Liverpool. And that is where the line in the sand must be drawn.

The statement did not read like someone who deeply cares for the club and their fans, and takes responsibility for the underperformance this season, to which he has contributed.

Instead it read like an attempt to weaponise disgruntled Liverpool supporters further against Slot and – to use Salah's phrase when he first hit out after the draw with Leeds United in December – throw him under the bus. A whole fleet of buses, in fact.

A fan of Liverpool holds up a sign which reads 'Thanks for great times,  Mo Salah + Robbo, YNWA, Taxi for Slot"
Salah's statement poured fuel on the fire of Liverpool fans' disgruntlement with Slot Credit: Carl Recine/Getty Images
At the same time Slot and Liverpool need to find out why so many players liked the post: 11 in all, including Florian Wirtz, Giovanni Leoni and Jeremie Frimpong, who were all signed under Slot. Did they read it? Did they agree with all of it or just that it has not been good enough and Liverpool have to get back to playing better? They should clear that up.

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Salah made his return from a hamstring injury against Villa and, normally, would expect to be in the team taking on Brentford and not least because of what he has contributed to Liverpool over his extraordinary nine years at the club. It could be a party atmosphere in an otherwise frustrating season.

Similarly Andrew Robertson, who is also leaving but stayed on the bench against Villa, should start and surely will. He deserves that send-off.

If Slot does not include Salah, it will feel sad, it may even anger players and fans and it will certainly be awkward as the Egyptian's name will be sung regardless of whether he is on the pitch and that will sting the head coach.

But Slot has to make a stand. The breakdown in his relationship with Salah is out in the open, if there were ever any doubt about that, and the head coach needs to say: "Enough." It is not about coming out fighting but standing up for himself, and the club, in a situation where the blame is being piled on him.

Slot may feel he is in a weak position to say what he truly feels about Salah, but it is impossible to imagine other elite managers in world football letting this slide. Pep Guardiola would not. Neither would Luis Enrique, Mikel Arteta or Thomas Tuchel. And, by the way, certainly not Jürgen Klopp, who had his moments with Salah.

Klopp and Salah
Jurgen Klopp's relationship with Salah was not without its fractious moments Credit: Justin Setterfield/Getty Images
No, they would assert the importance of the team over the individual. They would talk about Liverpool rather than an individual, no matter the status of the player and the scale of his achievements.

There are plenty of examples of this happening. In his last home game as Manchester United manager in 2013, Sir Alex Ferguson made a point of dropping Wayne Rooney completely because of the problems he believed he had caused him.

For now, Slot retains the support of the club's owners and decision-makers. Were he to fail to qualify for the Champions League, that could be different.

Liverpool have gone backwards this season. No one is denying that. Although it has been portrayed as a stupendous fall-off, it is not as severe as that and Slot has earned the right to remedy it. He won the league title in his first campaign, only the second they have won this century, and there have been a number of mitigating circumstances.

Not least was the death of Diogo Jota. The tragedy has had a profound effect. Gary Bloom, the sports psychologist, predicted in November that it would be a "grieving year" and that cannot be dismissed. There has also been a number of injuries. Just take one: Alexander Isak. Not a like-for-like replacement for Luis Díaz, a player Liverpool did not want to sell, but a huge signing who has barely been fit. Trent Alexander-Arnold refused all contract offers and left for free to join Real Madrid.

Alexander Isak  breaks his fibula in a challenge from Micky van de Ven
Alexander Isak broke his leg in a tackle by Micky van de Ven in December but had injury problems before that and has broken down again since his comeback  Credit: Justin Tallis/AFP
Salah did sign a new deal. A bumper new two-year contract on the back of scoring 32 goals in 45 appearances and winning the Premier League's Golden Boot, as well as his second title. He also averaged the most goal involvements per 90 minutes (1.44) and scooped all the individual awards, including the PFA Player of the Year, the FWA's Footballer of the Year and Liverpool's Player of the Year.

Who was the Liverpool manager when he did all this? Arne Slot.

And this season? Yes, Slot is still in charge, but Salah's form and contribution, his numbers, have fallen off a cliff to such an extent that all parties are happy for his contract to be ripped up and for him to leave. It is a joint responsibility.

It is an unnecessarily sad end. But not as unnecessary and self-serving as Salah's statement. If it has been misinterpreted, he needs to say so. But there has been nothing. So it was clear what he meant and what the consequence should be.

Scott Hastings

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFbMYQbIEAI

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2026/05/18/uk-gilts-bonds-borrowing-inflation-starmer-burnham-ftse-1000/
The world's oil stockpiles are "depleting very fast", the head of the International Energy Agency has warned.

Fatih Birol, executive director of the Paris-based agency, said commercial reserves were being rapidly drained as oil and gas shipments from the Middle East continue to be blocked by the war in Iran.

Speaking at a meeting of G7 finance ministers in Paris, Mr Birol warned there were only "several weeks" left of stored supplies at current rates of depletion.

"I think it is depleting very fast," he said. "We should be aware of the fact that it is declining rapidly."

https://novaramedia.com/2026/05/15/ireland-sent-dual-use-tech-worth-e20m-to-israel-despite-genocide/
Despite the country's reputation as an ally in the Palestinian struggle, Irish ministers from the centre-right coalition government only stopped granting export licences for dual-use technology in 2025.
The data was uncovered via Freedom of Information requests from the Currency and the Wall Street Journal. 
Dual-use products like computers and software have both civilian and military capabilities. Each needs its own licence and must be individually signed off by a minister. At least 11 dual-use licences worth €35m were exported to Israel between 2020 and 2024, €20m of that in 2024 alone. 

https://x.com/LizWebsterSBF/status/1998158040533799095

The Brexit majority hasn't just slipped it's vanished. Completely. This chart from Peter Kellner/YouGov shows: • 5 million 2016 voters have died • New young voters back Rejoin by 5:1 • 29% of Leave voters now want to rejoin • Net result: Rejoin 19.8m vs Stay Out 11.7m  An 8 MILLION majority for Rejoin. Britain is now a pro-EU country. The only people keeping Brexit alive are politicians who benefit from the damage

https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2026/05/15/most-northern-ireland-residents-who-voted-for-brexit-believe-it-has-failed-poll-finds/

The majority of voters in Northern Ireland, including among those who voted to leave the EU, agree Brexit has been more of a failure than a success, according to new research from Queen's University Belfast.
Ten years on from the referendum, the university found 72 per cent of Northern voters agreed with the statement, and 60 per cent among those who voted to leave.

The study, published on Friday, also found two-thirds of voters – 66 per cent – believed Brexit had made the break-up of the UK more likely.
It showed a "strong" preference for closer ties with the EU; 59 per cent of voters opposed further loosening of UK-EU ties and 57 per cent supported the UK rejoining.
She said the dominant theme in comments from those surveyed was "Brexit is a failure" and this was for two distinct reasons.
"Remainers say it's a failure because it was an act of national self-harm and they didn't want it anyway, and for leavers it's a failure because Northern Ireland never got Brexit," she explained.

Streeting and Burnham both proposed rejoining the EU.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2026/05/17/newcastle-vs-west-ham-live-score-latest-updates/

Newcastle 3 West ham 0

The relegation pass the parcel has been tossed into West Ham's lap and the music is about to stop after this abject surrender to Newcastle United.

There is not a present waiting for them to unwrap, there is a bomb ready to explode. The damage, economically and reputationally, will be severe and West Ham only have themselves to blame. They were serenaded with chants of "you're not fit to wear the shirt" after the final whistle.

If Tottenham can secure a win away to Chelsea on Tuesday night, they are doomed. Even if Spurs get a point at Stamford Bridge, given West Ham's vastly inferior goal difference, it is over.

Great win for Westmeath. Their second Leinster and they did it in style. Winning the Tailteann and now Leinster. 

[intensity]

Was it just me or was the intensity in the Munster game on a much higher level than Galway v Dublin?

Another question: if Kilkenny and Galway win their final games, meaning KK and Dublin finish on 7 pts, does Kilkenny go to the final because of the head to head win or is the tie broken by overall point difference?

It always  is.Munster has 5 teams on similar level and 3 spaces
Teams have to peak twice.

Tipp being hammered by Clare. Clare 13 points up and 13 wides per RTE. So it looks like Tipp out.
Can't do 2 in a row.