Manchester United are in discussions with Anthony Martial’s representatives over a new long-term contract.

Martial, 22, has a year left on his present deal but United have the option to extend by a further season.

Earlier this summer Martial’s agent said the France forward wanted to leave the club because of a lack of playing opportunities.

Tottenham made an inquiry, and it is understood that United manager Jose Mourinho was open to a deal.

Chelsea’s Willian and Inter Milan’s Ivan Perisic were being suggested as replacements.

His exit was blocked, however, with United’s executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward believing Mourinho should get more out of him.

It is understood United want to sign the Frenchman for an additional five years.

A £36m signing from Monaco in 2015, Martial’s only appearance so far this season was in the 3-2 defeat at Brighton on 19 August, when he was replaced after an hour.

He was not on the bench for Monday’s 3-0 home defeat by Tottenham.

A New Mexico judge dismissed, for now, child neglect charges Wednesday against three defendants arrested at a remote compound in northern New Mexico where 11 children were living in filth and the body of a missing 3-year-old Georgia boy was found, according to media reports.

Judge Emilio Chavez ruled in Taos County that the three defendants could no longer be held because prosecutors missed a 10-day limit for a hearing to establish probable cause for the neglect charges.

Prosecutors, however, could still try to obtain charges by seeking an indictment from a grand jury.

In a separate hearing, the court was expected to deal with new charges against Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, the dead boy’s father, and his 35-year-old partner Jany Leveille, who are accused of child abuse resulting in death, KOB-TV reports.

The victim, Abdul-Ghani Wahhaj, was allegedly abducted by his father from Jonesboro, Georgia in December. 

Warrants for Siraj’s arrest claimed he took his son to perform an exorcism on the child, who was seriously disabled, and was denying him medication.

The sheriff said when they had learned about the possible compound, the FBI conducted surveillance of the area, but had no legal basis to conduct a raid. Abdul-Ghani was never spotted during the surveillance.

Law enforcement offices finally raided the compound Aug. 3 after Taos County Sheriff Jerry Hogrefe’s office received a message, thought to have come from someone inside, saying, “We are starving and need food and water.”

“I absolutely knew that we couldn’t wait on another agency to step up and we had to go check this out as soon as possible,” Hogrefe said, according to The Associated Press.

Officers who went into the compound found that two men, three women and 11 children ranging in age from 1 to 15 were living off of potatoes and a box of rice amid a cache of guns, including an AR-15 rifle, according to officials.

Siraj was arrested with another Atlanta man, Lucas Morten, along with Leville, Hurah Wahhaj, 38, and Subhannah Wahhabj, 35.

After the raid, officials also presented several pieces of evidence, including alleged manuals on how to build untraceable weapons. In addition, according to testimony, some of the 11 children were handling ammunition and a least one child was armed, WXIA-TV reported.

In a 2006 federal court filing obtained by the Associated Press, Wahhaj identified himself as “the son of the famous Muslim Imam Siraj Wahhaj.” In the filing, the younger Wahhaj said he was harassed by customs agents at John F. Kennedy International Airport before and after a trip to Morocco, the AP reported.

Contributing The Associated Press

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Speculation about tensions in Russian-Iranian relations after the collapse of the nuclear deal earlier this year has been circulating for a few months now. Tehran appears to be fearing a “betrayal”, as Moscow is trying to negotiate with the United States on a variety of issues, including recently imposed economic sanctions.

In an August 22 press conference during a visit to Israel, US National Security Adviser John Bolton appeared to suggest that Russian President Vladimir Putin approves of the withdrawal of Iranian forces from Syria.

“President Putin… had said it to me three weeks before. …What he was saying was that Iranian interests in Syria were not coterminous with Russian interests in Syria and he would be content to see Iranian forces all sent back to Iran… we were talking about the complete return of both regular and irregular Iranian forces,” Bolton said.

The following day, Bolton met his Russian counterpart, Nikolai Patrushev, head of Russia’s Security Council, and it turned out that after all there wasn’t such solid mutual understanding on the issue.

Following the five-hour meeting, Bolton told journalists that the issue, which had been previously discussed in Helsinki by Putin and US President Donald Trump, was brought up again but no major progress had been made. According to him, Patrushev offered the “geographic restriction of Iranian forces” in exchange for the suspension of oil sanctions on Iran; the offer was rejected outright by the Americans.

The two officials failed to sign a joint statement after the Russian delegation refused to include an admission that Russia had meddled in US elections – something Bolton had insisted on. In these and past discussions, Washington acted as if it had leverage over Moscow because it believes “the Russians are stuck [in Syria] at the moment”. The Russian leadership, on the other hand, refuses to be pressured and insists on negotiating on an equal footing with the US.

Apart from that, there are a number of other reasons why Moscow continues to reject the offers the US has made on Syria.

Russia is not ready to abandon Iran

As Russian senator Alexei Pushkov noted after the talks in Geneva, “the US administration is trying to get from Russia such a shift in positions that would mean a full turn on Syria.” And Washington, as it asks Russia to abandon its situational ally, Iran, refuses to clarify what it would give Moscow in return.

US assurances that concessions Russia makes on its position on Iran would lead to the easing of sanctions sound unconvincing to Moscow. The Kremlin is well aware that the lifting of sanctions is the prerogative of the US Congress and not the president. This means the signing of an agreement with Trump on Syria would not guarantee any progress on sanctions.

Moreover, the Russian leadership is not ready to burn all bridges with Iran. In addition to the Syrian crisis, Moscow and Tehran collaborate on a wide variety of issues – from energy to security in the Caspian region and the situation in Afghanistan. And it is not only Iran who wants these collaborations to continue but also Russia.

Finally, Russia still does not trust the US – and for good reason.

The Russian leadership has repeatedly used Iran as a bargaining chip in its negotiations with the US.

In June 1995, US Vice President Al Gore signed a secret agreement with then Russian Prime Minister Viktor S Chernomyrdin, calling for an end to all Russian sales of conventional weapons to Iran by the end of 1999. This agreement cost Russia $4bn.

In 2009, the administrations of Dmitry Medvedev and Barack Obama agreed on a “reset” in Russian-US relations, which required Russia to scale down its partnership with Iran. A year later, Russia stopped supplying Iran with S-300 missiles systems in accordance with the UN Security Council resolution 1929. The resolution had banned countries from supplying heavy weapons to the Islamic Republic over its nuclear programme.

However, in both cases, despite Russia holding up its side of the bargain, there was never a real “reset” or warming in relations between Moscow and Washington. Russia did not gain anything from using Iran as a bargaining chip. On the contrary, it suffered economic losses from interrupted contracts and risked losing the trust of its Iranian allies. 

Russia’s influence over Tehran is not unlimited

There are also some reasons preventing Russia from accepting US demands on Syria that are not entirely in Moscow’s control. The Russian leadership is likely not lying when it calls an Iranian withdrawal from Syria “unrealistic”. Russia remains a key actor in the Syrian conflict, but its influence over its “allies” is not unlimited.

After pro-Iran forces pulled out of Syria’s border region with the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights earlier this month, Washington and Tel Aviv started to believe that Russia could facilitate Iran’s complete withdrawal from Syria. Russia, however, cannot meet such a high expectation for three reasons.

First, the withdrawal of pro-Iran forces from Syria’s southern border is not so much the result of Moscow’s pressure on Tehran, as it is a consequence of the Iranian leadership’s belief that it is in their own interest to do so.

The Kremlin managed to convince the Iranian establishment that the voluntary withdrawal of their militias from the border zone would not only minimise the risk of clashes with Israel, but also allow the Syrian government to retain influence over southern Syria. But it would be difficult for Russia to argue that the complete withdrawal of regular and irregular Iranian troops from Syria would help Tehran or the Assad regime.

Second, the complete removal of pro-Iran forces from Syria is not attainable under current circumstances. The nature of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) project in Syria is not one of dominating and taking over the system, but rather integrating so as to become an indivisible part of it. Throughout the seven-year civil war in Syria, the Iranians have so strongly integrated into the structure of the country’s armed forces that their elimination would entail the dismantling of the whole system. 

Third, on August 27, Iran and Syria signed a military cooperation deal, making the likelihood of Iran’s complete withdrawal from Syria even more impossible.

In light of all this, Washington can hardly count on Russia to force Iran out of Syria any time soon. 

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance. 

Kanye West got emotional while apologizing for his controversial slavery remarks that turned heads over the summer.

“I don’t know if I properly apologized for how that slave comment made people feel,” West said during an interview with Chicago’s WGCI 107.5 Wednesday. “I want to take this moment right now to say that I’m sorry for hurting, I’m sorry for the one-two effect of the MAGA hat into the slave comment.”

The 41-year-old rapper was embroiled in controversy in May after saying slavery “sounds like a choice” during a puzzling interview with TMZ Live. “You were there for 400 years and it’s all of y’all. It’s like we’re mentally imprisoned,” he insisted at the time. 

In response, TMZ staffer Van Lathan fired back at West, telling him, “Frankly, I’m disappointed, I’m appalled, and brother, I am unbelievably hurt by the fact that you have morphed into something to me, that’s not real.”

Now, the Chicago native says his outburst and downfall was the result of his now-diagnosed bipolar disorder and being surrounded with people who didn’t have his best interest at heart.

“I had people with me at TMZ that could have stopped it. They could have said ‘Yo this is going too far,’” West said. He broke down in tears talking about former collaborator Don C, who West said would have had “my back” and likely shut down the interview if he was there.

West called the incident a learning experience that showed “how much black people count on me and depend on me” and promised he is turning over a new leaf.

“There is a new Kanye West that you are going to see that is going to be better because of this mental health situation, that is going to be better because of this TMZ situation,” he said.

During the wide-ranging interview Wednesday, the “Ye” rapper discussed everything from his love of President Donald Trump to his alleged beef with Drake (which West denied). 

West was also given the chance to answer Jimmy Kimmel’s question on why he thought Trump cared about black people, referring to West’s infamous 2005 comment directed at former President George W. Bush in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

After another lengthy pause (similar to his long delay on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”) West offered his long-awaited take. 

“I feel that he cares about the way black people feel about him, and he would like for black people to like him like they did when he was cool in the rap songs,” West said. “(Trump) wants to be the greatest president, and he knows that he can’t be the greatest president without the acceptance of the black community.”

More: Kim Kardashian and Kanye West light up 2 Chainz’s wedding with neon outfits

Also: Kanye West says he ‘would smash’ wife Kim Kardashian’s sisters in new track ‘XTCY’

 

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A Dallas County jury sentenced former Balch Springs police officer Roy Oliver to 15 years in prison and a fine of $10,000 Wednesday night in the murder of unarmed teenager Jordan Edwards.

The jury deliberated for more than five hours, starting at about 4 p.m. Wednesday after an emotional two days of testimony during the punishment phase of the trial.

The attorney representing the Edwards family, Daryl K. Washington, said they would have wanted a longer sentence, but said they believe it’s a step in the right direction. “We know that there are parents all over this country who would love to see the person who took the life of their kid spend the next 15 years in prison,” Washington said.

“This is the beginning and we hope soon that it will be the end to all the violence that we have. Little kids, adults should be able to look at police officers as individuals who have taken the oath to protect and serve.”

Dallas County Prosecutor Faith Johnson said they respect the jury’s verdict. “Keep in mind, we love our police. We trust them. We know that they are committed to making certain that the people of Dallas County are safe and secure, so we love them and support the police,” Dallas County Prosecutor Faith Johnson said. “However, we do not support bad apples. We want to say to people like Roy Oliver, if you go out and murder anybody, we’re committed to making certain that we prosecute people like that.”

“I want to thank the Edwards family for their nobility, their heroism during this case. They refused to engage in protests or any certain violent activity. They are wonderful people who have my deepest respect,” First assistant district attorney Michael Snipes said.

Oliver’s attorney, Bob Gill, said they plan to appeal the sentence. Oliver will be eligible for parole after serving seven and a half years behind bars.

The jury found Oliver guilty of murder on Tuesday. It was the first murder conviction of police officer in Dallas County in more than 40 years.

RELATED: ‘I hope he gets what he deserves:’ Key moments from Roy Oliver’s sentencing phase

Oliver fatally shot Edwards, 15, after responding to a party in Balch Springs on April 29, 2017. Edwards was in a vehicle that was leaving the party when Oliver fired his AK-15 rifle five times into the car, striking Edwards in the head, according to testimony at trial.

Oliver testified that he shot at the car because he feared his partner, officer Tyler Gross, was in danger. Body camera footage showed the car was moving away from the officers, and Gross testified that he wasn’t in fear for his safety.

In the punishment phase, Edwards family and supporters testified Tuesday that he was a good kid with a bright future.

RELATED: Watch: Judge reads guilty verdict in Roy Oliver murder trial

Jeff Fleener, Edwards’ football coach at Mesquite High School, broke down on the stand as he described how Edwards’ football locker has gone untouched since his death.

On Wednesday, Oliver’s mother and wife testified in the case, describing Oliver as a loving father of young boy with autism. “Consider his son,” Oliver’s mother, Linda Oliver, pleaded to the jury, asking for the minimum sentence of five years in prison.

Oliver’s half-sister, Wendi Oliver, testified against him, saying she hoped “he gets what he deserves because he took an innocent life.”

RELATED: The last Dallas Co. cop convicted of murder, four decades before Roy Oliver

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Prince Harry is officially off of the market these days, but an old crush has somehow resurfaced. 

Dorm room photos from his stint at Eton College in 2003 popped back up recently — only this time, some eagle eyes have noticed Halle Berry on the poster behind the grinning young prince. 

“Ok #PrinceHarry, I see you!” Berry wrote on Twitter after finding the image on W magazine. She tagged Missy Elliot because it’s practically blasphemous to discuss Halle Berry posters without referencing the iconic line “Don’t I look like a Halle Berry poster?” from “Work It.” 

There are two other figures on the poster, but unfortunately they are cut off. He’s also got a great assortment of mugs and family photos — including a framed portrait of Princess Diana on his desk.

Elliott hasn’t responded to the poster quite yet, but plenty of people have been talking about hilarious throwback on Twitter. 

Perhaps the poster lives on somewhere in Kensington Palace to this day.

The Cleveland Browns have announced that they have released linebacker Mychal Kendricks. This move comes just hours after Kendricks admitted to participating in insider trading.

Browns general manager John Dorsey released a statement: “Prior to signing Mychal, we were informed that there was a financial situation that he had been involved with in 2014. We were told Mychal had fully cooperated with investigators as a victim. From what was communicated at that time and based on the numerous questions we asked and further due diligence on our part, including checking with the league office, there was no information discovered that conveyed otherwise.

“Recently, we were provided an update on the matter and the circumstances have changed. We are now dealing with a different set of facts and the additional information we’ve gathered has led us to the decision to release Mychal from our team. Due to the ongoing legal nature of this situation, we will have no further comments.”

Federal authorities announced Wednesday that Kendricks and television writer/producer Damilare Sonoiki have been indicted on insider trading charges.

MORE NFL:

U.S. Attorney William M. McSwain said in a news conference that Kendricks allegedly received non-public information about corporate mergers in 2014 from Sonoiki, who was an employee at Goldman Sachs at the time. Kendricks then used that information to invest in the companies that were about to be acquired, McSwain said, and made approximately $1.2 million in profit. 

Authorities allege that Kendricks then gave Sonoiki, who later left the bank and became a writer for the ABC series Black-ish, a series of kickbacks ranging from cash to tickets to NFL games. Kendricks played for the Philadelphia Eagles at the time.

David Weinstein, a former federal prosecutor and current partner at Hinshaw & Culbertson, said in an email that Kendricks is likely facing “between 2-3 years based on the alleged profits gained from the asserted violations.”

Kendricks signed a one-year contract with the Browns in June and had been listed as a backup to Jamie Collins at strongside linebacker. Kendricks spent the previous six seasons with the Philadelphia Eagles and was a starter in the team’s win in Super Bowl LII.

Contributing: A.J. Perez.

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You’re likely familiar with Twitter’s suggestions on who to follow. Now, the company is asking some users if they want to unfollow people. 

As first pointed out by Slate, the social media platform is testing unfollow suggestions.

“We know that people want a relevant Twitter timeline. One way to do this is by unfollowing people they don’t engage with regularly. We ran an incredibly limited test to surface accounts that people were not engaging with to check if they’d like to unfollow them,” a Twitter spokesperson told the publication.

The feature is reminiscent of Gmail’s unsubscribe suggestions, which prompts you when the algorithm detects you haven’t engaged with a particular sender in awhile.

People who were part of the test posted screenshots on Twitter, although the suggestions weren’t entirely welcome.

Twitter’s prompt tells users they “don’t need to follow everyone to know what’s happening.”

At the moment, Twitter’s explanation to users on why they should unfollow certain accounts seems pretty vague. 

Gmail’s unsubscribe prompts at least make it clear that you haven’t been engaging much with its suggestions, leaving no room for perceived bias in its selections — an argument which Twitter would perhaps like to avoid right now.

Everton continued their unbeaten start to the season with a victory over Rotherham that secures their place in the third round of the Carabao Cup.

Despite making eight changes from Saturday’s Premier League draw at Bournemouth, the Toffees had too much for their Championship opponents.

Gylfi Sigurdsson opened the scoring with a neat close-range finish.

Two goals from Dominic Calvert-Lewin, either side of Will Vaulks’ header for Rotherham, saw the home side through.

The win extends Everton’s League Cup record of having progressed from the second round in every season since 2001-02, when they were beaten on penalties by Crystal Palace.

Added to the two draws and a win from their first three Premier League games, it makes for a very encouraging start to the reign of boss Marco Silva.

Silva will have been pleased with the display of some of his second string, a number of whom pressed their case for inclusion for Saturday’s home league encounter with Huddersfield.

Sandro Ramirez provided a neat low cross for Sigurdsson to score the opener, while Lucas Digne, at left-back, and fellow full debutant Kurt Zouma, at centre-back, were assured.

Calvert-Lewin was the standout, though, rising high in the box to head in Digne’s pinpoint cross and then curling in a superb second from 20 yards just moments after Vaulks had given Rotherham hope with his headed goal.

It was a timely reminder of the young forward’s goalscoring ability with current leading scorer Richarlison suspended at the weekend following his red card at the Vitality Stadium.

Everton boss Marco Silva: “It was important for us to get the result. That was our goal before the match, of course. But the first words I must give to the fans. It was fantastic support from them tonight.

“It’s a Wednesday evening, our first League Cup match and more than 31,000 came to support us. That is fantastic for us.

“They showed me and our players that they are behind us and supporting us, that they believe in our squad.

“For me, that is just as important as the result for us tonight.”

Rotherham boss Paul Warne: “I don’t look at my players as first-team players or reserves, they are much of a muchness.

“I don’t regard making all those changes as weakening the team. It isn’t like I’ve been offensive to the cup, I’ve got another big game Saturday.

“I was intending to throw the kitchen sink at them in the last 20 minutes and, at 2-1, it looked like I was a fantastic tactician.”

A dramatic photo of a thick lightning bolt illuminating the night sky as it seemingly touches Lake Michigan is racking up likes and shares on Facebook. 

Jack Brandenburg from Door County, Wisconsin, snapped the picture early Tuesday morning while aboard the Mesabi Miner, where he works as a mate. He used his Samsung cellphone camera and a long exposure 

The 1,004-foot ship was carrying iron ore from Duluth, Minnesota, to Indiana Harbor, Indiana.

“The weather wasn’t quite as dramatic as it looks in the picture though it was raining and lightning,” Chrissy Kadleck, who manages social media and public relations for the Ohio-based Interlake Steamship Company, said in an e-mail. 

Read more:

The Interlake Steamship Company has nine freighters that travel the Great Lakes delivering bulk raw materials for the power generation, steel-making and construction industries. 

The company  posted Brandenburg’s image on its Facebook page Tuesday morning. By Wednesday afternoon, it had been shared  6,300 times and liked more than 4,000 times. 

“This picture has blown all of our previous social media records out of the water,” Kadleck said. 

Contact Ann Zaniewski: 313-222-6594 or azaniewski@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter: @AnnZaniewski. 

 

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