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Israeli Soccer Player Manor Solomon Signs With Leeds United on Season-Long Loan Deal
Manor Solomon of Tottenham during the Premier League match at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, London, England, 30th September 2023. Photo: David Klein / Sportimage via Reuters
Leeds United confirmed on Tuesday that Israeli soccer player Manor Solomon has joined the English soccer team on a season-long loan deal from the Premier League side Tottenham Hotspur.
Solomon, who was born in a Sephardic Jewish family in Israel, will wear the number 14 jersey for Leeds United. He began his professional soccer career with the Israeli Premier League soccer team Maccabi Petah Tikvah in 2017. Two years later he was signed by the Ukrainian soccer team Shakhtar Donetsk. He helped the Ukrainian club win the Ukrainian Premier League twice, as well as the Ukrainian Cup and the Ukrainian Super Cup. He also competed in the UEFA Champions League, the top soccer competition in Europe – during his three seasons with Shakhtar, and became the the youngest Israeli to score in the UEFA Champions League when he scored a goal in Shakhtar’s group-stage game against Atalanta in October 2019.
“I am really happy to be here,” said Solomon, 25, who is the sixth player to be signed this summer by Leeds United. “I’ve heard a lot about the club, about its fans, about the heritage, the history. I know it’s a massive club in England and I’m looking forward to seeing the fans and to meet them all.”
“As soon as the interest from Leeds came, I started to look for the players, for the coach and I’ve spoken with the manager and he explained to me about the style of playing, about the players that there are in Leeds,” Solomon added. “I know there is a group of great lads, young people with great desire, with great techniques and I’m looking forward to playing with them and to help them in the best way I can. I just want to get going.”
In July 2022, after fleeing Ukraine at the start of the country’s war with Russia, Solomon moved to the west London side Fulham on a season-long loan deal from Shakhtar. He made 24 appearances and scored five goals in five consecutive games while playing for Fulham. He was also nominated for the Premier League’s Player of the Month award.
Solomon joined Tottenham Hotspur as a forward on a five-year deal in July 2023. His last season was cut short in September due to an injury but he returned to play for the Spurs in pre-season earlier this summer. Solomon said this week, “now I am fit and I’m ready to go, I’m ready to show myself again.”
“I’m ready to go back to the biggest levels again and hopefully we’ll have a great season here at Leeds,” he said. “We have one goal and everyone knows our goal, hopefully we’ll do it together.”
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Two Russian Regions Block Telegram App Over Security Fears
The Telegram logo is seen on a screen of a smartphone in this picture illustration taken April 13, 2018. Photo: REUTERS/Ilya Naymushin.
Authorities in two Russian regions have blocked the Telegram messenger because of concerns that the app could be used by enemies, a regional digital development minister was quoted as saying by the TASS state news agency on Saturday.
Dagestan and Chechnya are mainly Muslim regions in southern Russia where intelligence services have registered an increase in militant Islamist activity.
“It (Telegram) is often used by enemies, an example of which is the riots at the Makhachkala airport,” said Yuri Gamzatov, Dagestan’s digital development minister, adding that the decision to block the messenger had been made at the federal level.
Gamzatov was referring to an anti-Israel riot in Dagestan in October 2023, when hundreds of protesters stormed an airport to try to attack passengers arriving on a plane from the Jewish state. No passengers were injured, and authorities have prosecuted several people over the incident.
News of the plane’s arrival had spread on local Telegram channels, where users posted calls for antisemitic violence. Telegram condemned the attack and said it would block the channels.
Telegram did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the blocks in Russia.
Based in Dubai and founded by Russian-born Pavel Durov, the messenger has nearly 1 billion users and is used widely in Russia, Ukraine and other former Soviet republics.
Moscow tried but failed to block Telegram in 2018 and has in the past demanded the platform hand over user data. Durov is under formal investigation in France as part of a probe into organized crime on the app.
Gamzatov, the minister in Dagestan, said Telegram could be unblocked in the future, but encouraged users to switch to other messengers in the meantime.
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Trump’s Scottish Golf Resort Vandalized with Pro-Palestine Graffiti
US President Donald Trump speaks at the White House, in Washington, DC, Feb. 3, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz
US President Donald Trump’s Turnberry golf resort in Scotland has been daubed with pro-Palestinian graffiti, with a protest group claiming responsibility.
Local media on Saturday showed images of red paint scrawled across walls at the course with the slogans “Free Gaza” and “Free Palestine” as well as insults against Trump.
“Gaza is not for sale” was also painted on one of the greens and holes dug up on the course.
Palestine Action said it caused the damage, posting on social media platform X: “Whilst Trump attempts to treat Gaza as his property, he should know his own property is within reach.”
Last month, Trump enraged the Arab world by declaring unexpectedly that the United States would take over Gaza, resettle its over 2-million Palestinian population and develop it into the “Riviera of the Middle East.”
Police Scotland said it was investigating.
“Around 4.40am on Saturday, 8 March, 2025, we received a report of damage to the golf course and a premises on Maidens Road, Turnberry,” a Police Scotland spokesperson said, adding that enquiries were ongoing.
Separately on Saturday, a man waving a Palestinian flag climbed the Big Ben tower at London’s Palace of Westminster.
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Columbia University Promises to Address Trump Administration’s Concerns After $400 Million in Funding Pulled
A student protester parades a Palestinian flag outside the entrance to Hamilton Hall on the campus of Columbia University, in New York, US, April 30, 2024. Photo: Mary Altaffer/Pool via REUTERS
Columbia University’s interim president said the school is working to address the “legitimate concerns” of US President Donald Trump’s administration after $400 million of federal government grants and contracts to the university were canceled over allegations of antisemitism on campus.
In an announcement on Friday, the government cited what it described as antisemitic harassment on and near the school’s New York City campus as the reason for pulling the funding. The university has repeatedly been at the forefront of pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel student protest movement since the October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel and subsequent war in Gaza.
“I want to assure the entire Columbia community that we are committed to working with the federal government to address their legitimate concerns,” Katrina Armstrong, the university’s interim president, said in a late-night message to alumni on Friday. “To that end, Columbia can, and will, continue to take serious action toward combating antisemitism on our campus.”
The Trump administration said the canceled funding is only a portion of the $5 billion in government grants that has been committed to the school, but the school is bracing for a financial hit.
“There is no question that the cancellation of these funds will immediately impact research and other critical functions of the University, impacting students, faculty, staff, research, and patient care,” Armstrong said.
Federal funding accounted for about $1.3 billion of the university’s $6.6 billion in operating revenue in the 2024 fiscal year, according to a Columbia financial report.
Some Jewish students and staff have been among the pro-Palestinian protesters, and they say their criticism of Israel is being wrongly conflated with antisemitism. Minouche Shafik resigned last year as Columbia’s president after the university’s handling of the protests drew criticism from pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian sides alike.
The administration has declined to say what contracts and grants it has canceled, but the Education Department argues the demonstrations have been unlawful and deprive Jewish students of learning opportunities.
Civil rights groups say the immediate cuts are unconstitutional punishment for protected speech and likely to face legal challenges.
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