Here's Why Summer Hot Spots Are Turning Against Tourists
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Bloomberg
21 minutes ago
- Bloomberg
US Futures Drop as Trump Steps Up Tariff Threats: Markets Wrap
By and Paul Dobson Save US equity futures dropped on Monday following President Donald Trump's weekend declaration of a 30% tariff on goods from the European Union and Mexico effective Aug. 1. S&P 500 contracts fell 0.4% in early Asia trading. The dollar and Japanese yen edged higher against major peers while the Australian and New Zealand dollars slipped.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
EU envoys near agreement on lower Russian oil price cap
By Julia Payne BRUSSELS (Reuters) -European Union envoys are on the verge of agreeing an 18th package of sanctions against Russia for its full-scale invasion of Ukraine that would include a lower price cap on Russian oil, four EU sources said after a Sunday meeting. The sources said all the elements of the package had been agreed, although one member state still has a technical reservation on the new cap. The sources - speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss confidential talks - said they expect to reach a full agreement on Monday, ahead of a foreign ministers' meeting in Brussels the following day that could formally approve the package. The sources said they had also agreed to a dynamic price mechanism for the price cap. On Friday, the European Commission proposed a floating price cap on Russian oil of 15% below the average market price of crude in the previous three months. One of the sources said the initial price would be around $47 a barrel based on the average price of Russian crude for the last 22 weeks minus 15%. Further, the price would be revised based on the average oil price every six months instead of the proposed three months. Slovakia - which has held up the proposed package - is still seeking reassurances from the European Commission on its concerns about plans to phase out Russian gas supply but it has agreed to the new measures, the sources said. Sanctions require unanimity among the EU's member countries to be adopted. The Group of Seven (G7) price cap, aimed at curbing Russia's ability to finance the war in Ukraine, was originally agreed in December 2022. The European Union and Britain have been pushing the G7 to lower the cap for the last two months after a fall in oil futures made the current $60 a barrel level largely irrelevant. The cap bans trade in Russian crude oil transported by tankers if the price paid was above $60 per barrel and prohibits shipping, insurance and re-insurance companies from handling cargoes of Russian crude around the globe, unless it is sold for less than the price cap. The Commission proposed the package in early June, aimed at further cutting Moscow's energy revenues, including a ban on transactions with Russia's Nord Stream gas pipelines, and financial network that helps it circumvent sanctions. Another one of the sources said the new package will list a Russian-owned refinery in India, two Chinese banks, and a flag registry. Russia has used flags of convenience for its shadow fleet of ships and oil tankers.
New York Times
an hour ago
- New York Times
How Chelsea won the Club World Cup: Big bonuses, training ground deals and ‘scary' Palmer
When Chelsea weighed up the future of Mauricio Pochettino in May 2024, one factor that came into play was the team's involvement in the Club World Cup a year later. Sporting directors Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart, along with Behdad Eghbali, the managing partner of majority owner Clearlake Capital, took the view the 2024-25 campaign and the 2025-26 season should be treated as a double season. Advertisement This presented a problem if they took a wait-and-see approach with head coach Pochettino, whose contract at Chelsea was a two-year deal ending in 2025. Chelsea did not want the disruption of introducing a new coach just before the Club World Cup, and the window to replace a coach between the Club World Cup and the 2025-26 season would be too tight, which meant they needed to stick or twist with Pochettino. The Argentinian, who is now USMNT head coach, departed and Enzo Maresca arrived. The decision divided Chelsea fans but Maresca ends his first season having secured Champions League football, a Europa Conference league trophy and now — thanks in no small part to Cole Palmer — the title of Club World Cup champions. To defeat Paris Saint-Germain's previously irrepressible team represents a spectacular achievement for a Chelsea side which had been largely unfancied before the start of the tournament. It aids the sense of a squad building momentum and developing a winning culture no matter what scepticism may exist about the competition. Here, The Athletic tells the story of how they did it. The Club World Cup has always been taken seriously in the Chelsea boardroom, even before FIFA finally secured venues, a broadcaster and sponsors during a frazzling lead-up to the inaugural expanded version of the competition. When deciding upon Pochettino's fate, Chelsea did not know the precise riches on offer but FIFA had made clear there would be the potential of Champions League-level money. In the end, Chelsea leave the United States $114 million (£84.5m) better off as the winners in the tournament. That figure will be subject to taxes and must be set against Chelsea not being able to do their own money-spinning pre-season tour, but it remains an essential windfall in the context of the Premier League's profitability and sustainability rules (PSR) and UEFA's Financial Fair Play rules. Chelsea were recently punished by UEFA with a $36m fine for breaching financial rules, while they have also already spent over £100m this summer on Joao Pedro, Jamie Gittens and Liam Delap. More arrivals are expected, with Manchester United's Alejandro Garnacho a long-term consideration. Being crowned champions of the world will thrill the club's accountants as well as their fans, given the increased commercial opportunities that status should offer, while for Palmer it could also be a transformational moment. Advertisement The England forward was one of the poster boys for this tournament, featuring heavily in promotional material and advertising throughout. It was his face which loomed large in a billboard over Times Square in the week of the final — along with the tagline 'Scary Good' — and when a Chelsea player was needed to accompany PSG's Ousmane Dembele up the Rockafeller Centre on Friday to take publicity shots on a 'girder' overlooking the city (both men were safely tethered to their seats), there was no doubt who would be picked. Palmer certainly lived up to the hype in the final, his two identical first-half finishes — and an assist for Joao Pedro — rendering what should have been an onerous task against PSG into a procession at MetLife Stadium. Speaking before the final, Tosin Adarabioyo — who became a virtually inseparable social double act with Palmer during this tournament — told reporters: 'His life has changed in the past two years. As banter sometimes I call him like a little superstar. But he handles it very well. He knows he's focused his career on football.' Palmer's post-match interviews may still cause some anxiety — DAZN had to apologise after Palmer said 'Everyone's talked a lot of s*** about us all season' to its reporter Kelly Somers — but after his match-winning turn in the final, his starpower will only grow from here. The final may ultimately have been routine, but Chelsea's journey there was anything but. Due to the convoluted criteria for qualifying, it started over four years ago in May 2021, when Thomas Tuchel's side defeated Manchester City to lift the Champions League. The club was then owned by Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich and is now scarcely recognisable from that night. Since then, Chelsea have been placed under sanctions owing to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Abramovich has been booted out of English football, the club has been taken over by Clearlake Capital and Todd Boehly's consortium and Maresca is Chelsea's fourth head coach in a dramatic four-year period. Advertisement When Chelsea played Fluminense in the semi-final last week, Thiago Silva was the one player on the field who was in the starting XI when Chelsea beat City in 2021 — and he was representing the Brazilian side, having left last summer. Some 48 players have signed and even more have left since the new owners arrived in 2022. On the ground in the U.S., Chelsea have faced obstacles, including a daft red card for striker Nicolas Jackson in the group stages and a five-hour last 16 game against Benfica. That included an almost two-hour delay for severe weather during which some players were calling family members back home while others stretched to stay warm. Maresca, meanwhile, has had plenty of complaints. He described the circumstances in Charlotte against Benfica as a 'joke' but has also sounded off about his players' workload. Chelsea's competitive season began on August 18 last year, which makes this a 329-day campaign. He also had concerns about the temperatures his players endured in training during a Philadelphia heatwave, saying conditions made it 'almost impossible to train.' While Chelsea could not control the weather, they found other ways to try to seize a competitive advantage. They offered players bonuses on a par with those they might receive in the Premier League or Champions League. The ownership moved fast to secure Delap's signature from Ipswich Town before the tournament and also attempted to sign Gittens from Borussia Dortmund early, but that deal did not make the deadline to be registered for the group stages. When the transfer window reopened for the mid-tournament registration window, Joao Pedro was signed from Brighton and his two goals against Fluminense in the semi-final secured Chelsea a minimum of $30m for advancing to the final. The Brazilian ticked the box of the versatile attacker Chelsea wanted and he arrived in prime condition, having worked with a trainer while on vacation in Brazil. Advertisement While steps were taken to bolster the squad, the club were not prepared to hinder the overall long-term plan solely for the interests of this tournament, which is why Noni Madueke was allowed to leave between the semi-finals and final to have a medical with Arsenal. Similarly, goalkeeper Djordje Petrovic could have gone to the U.S. but he wanted assurances about being first choice which Chelsea could not give. The competition was seen as a chance for all the goalkeepers to show what they could do so a gentlemen's agreement was put in place for him to stay behind and resolve his future. He subsequently joined Bournemouth for £25m. Chelsea also splashed the cash to secure their preferred training facility. FIFA had created a brochure of training bases and hotels and told clubs it would cover up to $15,000 per day for training sites, but clubs could go it alone if they wished, though this led to complication with the Philadelphia Union. The MLS club's facilities were listed in the FIFA brochure. While Chelsea had two games in Philadelphia, so too did Flamengo, which risked the Brazilian team securing the base in accordance with FIFA's lottery system for allocating bases. Chelsea contacted the MLS franchise directly and made an agreement independent of FIFA, with the Union requesting to be removed from its brochure. Flamengo instead trained at Stockton University in New Jersey, around 50 miles from Lincoln Financial Field, while Chelsea trained much closer to the stadium and a half-hour drive to their Four Seasons Hotel in central Philadelphia, a familiar haunt for the club from previous pre-season tours. Chelsea then lined up Barry University in Miami to prepare for their round-of-16 game. They had originally hoped to top their group, which would have seen them play at Hard Rock Stadium, but they ended up in Charlotte after finishing the group phase as runners-up to Flamengo. Advertisement However, the Barry University facilities were among the most in-demand on the east coast — they were Real Madrid's first choice, only for the Spanish club to defer to Boca Juniors under FIFA's allocation system during the group stages. So Chelsea used Barry as a base until the semi-final preparations, when they moved to New York and utilized both New York City FC and New York Red Bulls facilities. FIFA's budget also allowed clubs a daily contribution during the tournament of $38,500, to cover the cost of an average travelling party for their stays in five-star resorts, food, travel and associated costs. Chelsea ended up committing almost double FIFA's allowance during the tournament across all their costs in order to give their players the best possible preparation and prospects for success in the tournament. Chelsea arrived at the tournament in good spirits. The Premier League ended in positive fashion on May 25 as they sealed a Champions League place before the Conference League victory over Real Betis added some silverware to the season. Some players had a brief break and others headed away on international duty. Upon reconvening for four days of training at their Cobham training base in Surrey, Maresca told his players: 'Guys, it's not pre-season. It's a tournament — a big, big tournament.' Maresca took only a couple of days off, but said he could not be '100 per cent off' as he needed to get up to speed with teams he was less familiar with. On June 13, three days before their opening group stage game against LAFC, Chelsea flew to Philadelphia with 24 players, while South Americans Moises Caicedo, Enzo Fernandez, Andrey Santos and Aaron Anselmino met them stateside. Chelsea's approach to the tournament was emphasised by most of their players who had been loaned to other clubs having agreements in place which meant they could return to the club in time to feature in the Club World Cup. However, Chelsea saw the tournament as a continuation of the 2024-25 season and wanted to keep the group who had achieved their Premier League and Conference League targets by and large the same. Advertisement Santos, who shone at Strasbourg for the previous 18 months, was the exception because he has been earmarked to be part of the 2025-26 plans. The remaining loanees were allowed to go on holiday and returned to pre-season training at Cobham last week. Chelsea saw little benefit in having them out in U.S., making the squad size too large and therefore threatening to undermine the competitive nature of the sessions. Maresca sought to keep focus high but recognised his players needed adjustments. Ahead of the second group-stage game against Flamengo, he said: 'It's impossible for them as human beings to be fit or to be 100 per cent for 11 months. So this morning, we did the session and the main focus after the warm-up was just the tactical aspect.' Although their training base in Philadelphia enjoyed a breeze from the adjacent Delaware River, they deployed huge industrial fans by the side of the pitch and cooling sprays to mitigate the the scalding temperatures. Maresca also significantly shortened his sessions. Chelsea collapsed against Flamengo and several calls went wrong for Maresca, who started Delap ahead of Jackson. He also tweaked his system, opting to start Reece James in midfield, pushing his full-backs Malo Gusto and Marc Cucurella high instead of inverting them, and opting for Palmer, by then 26 games without a goal, to the right wing rather than as a No 10. Jackson emerged as a substitute but was sent off, while the team performed poorly even with 11 men. Jackson apologised in the dressing room, and to the fans on Instagram, and a photograph of a subdued birthday celebration later circulated on X. Cucurella said: 'He's a young player with a lot of quality but maybe needs to improve a little bit in these things. He has to learn. After the manager spoke, he said sorry, he didn't do it on purpose.' Maresca said he was trying 'something different' in his selection, with a view to next season, which highlighted how this tournament acted as a hybrid between pre-season experimentation and a competitive priority. This was highlighted, too, by Maresca using every outfield player at some point during the Club World Cup. By finishing second in the group stage, Chelsea actually gained an advantage as it placed them in the side of the draw that avoided PSG, Bayern Munich and Real Madrid. When Inter Milan and Manchester City unexpectedly exited in the round of 16, a clear path towards the final opened up. Yet Chelsea still needed to beat a Benfica side who had topped a group which included Bayern, while two Brazilian opponents awaited in the quarter-final and semi-final. Advertisement Chelsea have a far bigger budget but the Brazilian fans dominated the stadiums. Before the semi-final against Fluminense, Chelsea launched an initiative, asking their own players to promote tickets on Instagram to try and bring more blue into the MetLife stadium. Over 65,000 attended the match against Palmeiras in Philadelphia and over 70,000 turned out at MetLife, as tickets dropped to $11 for the quarter-final and $13 for the semi-final. There was a more significant contingent of Chelsea fans for the final against PSG, helped by a large swathe of Ecuadorean supporters backing Moises Caicedo, and their dismantling of the team who had been billed as the world's best will probably have earned them many more. The scenes at full-time, when PSG and Chelsea players had to be separated by staff as tensions boiled over, gave an indication as to how much this occasion meant and how the French champions had been rattled by Maresca's approach. Now, Chelsea players will finally have a three-week holiday, reporting back for training on August 4. Chelsea have not requested their domestic league push back their fixtures to give the team a greater rest. Chelsea's view is that their players will be rested, recuperated and ready to go all over again. They will play warm-up games for the new season against Bayer Leverkusen on August 8 and Milan on August 10. They will begin their Premier League season 35 days on from the final of the Club World Cup. And they will do so as champions of the world. Additional reporting: Simon Johnson and Liam Twomey
