Short on Cash, Democrats Weigh Big Bets to Unseat Entrenched Republicans

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Real Madrid reveal they have made offer for Argentinian
Arbeloa departs club, paving way for Mourinho return
Real Madrid have revealed they have had a €150m (£129.4m) bid for Julián Alvarez rejected by city rivals Atlético Madrid. The Argentina striker has scored 49 goals in 106 appearances for Atlético since joining from Manchester City in 2024.
The 26-year-old, whose contract runs until 2030, reportedly wants to leave and has been linked with Arsenal and Barcelona. Florentino Pérez vowed before his reelection as Real’s president to submit a club-record offer for an unnamed “great player”.
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© Photograph: Álex Caparrós/UEFA/Getty Images

© Photograph: Álex Caparrós/UEFA/Getty Images
Enrique Riquelme loses challenge against Pérez
José Mourinho will now be confirmed as manager
Florentino Pérez will continue as president of Real Madrid after winning their first elections in 20 years, paving the way for his plans to sell 5% of the club.
Pérez, who has been president for 23 years across two spells – first between 2000 and 2006 and then since 2009, winning the past five elections unopposed – polled 65%. The 37-year-old challenger, Enrique Riquelme, lost with 35% after a total of 33,555 members exercised their right to vote.
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© Photograph: Denis Doyle/Getty Images

© Photograph: Denis Doyle/Getty Images
Club president launches scathing attack on media
No mention of turmoil, fights or José Mourinho
“Good afternoon, I regret to inform you that I’m not going to resign.” In a hot, packed press room at Valdebebas before an audience hurriedly summoned to witness a news conference so bizarre that they could barely believe what they were seeing, Florentino Pérez sat at a desk with a phone that he kept looking at and some papers that he didn’t, and announced that he was calling presidential elections at Real Madrid. What he didn’t announce was a date, an electoral commission, the resignation that is required for polling to actually happen, or indeed any details at all.
There was nothing about Madrid’s on-field issues either, nothing about the coach, no mention of José Mourinho, no explanation for the season they have just suffered. “I’m not here to talk about sporting issues,” Pérez said. Instead, he was there to deliver a surreal, repetitive rant that lasted over an hour, way after his own staff had tried to bring it to a close. A room of people, including the directors in the front row and lined up against one wall, looked at each other: yes, this was actually happening. Pérez went on and on, and on, the incoherent ramblings of a 79-year-old man who insisted “my health is perfect”.
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Critics have given the Flotus flick 11% on the aggregator site, but the ‘verified ticket buyers’ score is a near perfect 98%. A campaign by activists, or a sign of our politically disparate times?
If you’ve started to feel like you’re living in an entirely different reality from most of the world, there’s a good chance that it’s because you’ve been looking at the Rotten Tomatoes page for the Melania Trump documentary. There you will find two diametrically opposed numbers. First is the official Rotten Tomatoes score – the one aggregated across published reviews by professional critics – which sits at a minuscule 11%. But then there is the audience rating, which is based on scores from members of the general public. That score, incredibly, is 98%. (Admittedly, this is a score confined to “verified ticket buyers” – Rotten Tomatoes has another section it calls “All Audience” where the reaction is more … mixed.)
Of course, there has long been a chasm between public and critical opinion, which is why the film that won the most Oscars last year was a small character study about a disenfranchised stripper and the film that brought in the most money was about Minecraft. Even so, the disparity between the brutal reviews that Melania received (“The most depressing experience I have ever had in the cinema” – Mark Kermode) and the glowing public reviews (“Every red blooded American needs to see this movie to recognise the grace, sophistication and power of Flotius [sic]” – Jackie) is enough to give you whiplash.
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© Photograph: Samuel Corum/Getty Images

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