Mourinho appears to grab nose of rival coach after Turkish Cup loss

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Mourinho appears to grab nose of rival coach after Turkish Cup loss

2025-04-03 17:30 Last Updated At：17:41

Jose Mourinho appeared to pinch the nose of Galatasaray coach Okan Buruk after his Fenerbahce team was knocked out of the Turkish Cup in a fiery match on Wednesday.

In footage widely shared on social media, Mourinho appears to reach out from behind his opponent and make contact with his nose. Buruk then falls to the ground holding his face before Mourinho is escorted away.

Three players were sent off in the Istanbul derby at Fenerbahce's stadium. Galatasary won 2-1.

“He squeezed my nose from behind while I was going on. There was a slight scratch. Of course, it’s not a very nice and stylish thing,” Buruk said after the quarterfinal match. “I won’t exaggerate about it, but it’s not a very stylish thing.”

Galatasaray vice president Metin Ozturk was not so restrained in his response to a fresh controversy involving the outspoken Mourinho.

“The latest incident is not only an attack on Galatasaray's coach but also on Turkish football. This is Mourinho, I don’t know where he gets this courage," he said. “Where in the world can he do this? Where does he think Turkey is?”

Mourinho was accused by Galatasaray in February of making racist comments after another match involving the Istanbul rivals. Galatasaray said the former Real Madrid, Manchester United and Chelsea manager had used “unequivocally inhumane rhetoric” after he referred to the opposition bench “jumping around like monkeys.”

Fenerbahce rejected the accusation and then said it had filed a lawsuit against Galatasaray for an “attack on the personal rights” of Mourinho.

Galatasaray reveled in its victory on Wednesday and posted a picture on its official X account of a smiling Buruk looking in Mourinho's direction.

“YOU SHOULD NOT ATTACK, YOU SHOULD DIGEST!” was the message accompanying the picture along with a shushing emoji.

James Robson is at https://twitter.com/jamesalanrobson

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

RFK Jr. visits West Texas as a second child is buried after dying from a measles-related illness

2025-04-07 04:36 Last Updated At：04:40

U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. traveled to West Texas on Sunday after a second elementary school-aged child who was not vaccinated died from a measles-related illness.

Ahead of a “Make America Healthy Again” tour across southwestern U.S., Kennedy said in a social media post that he was in Gaines County to comfort the families who have buried two young children.

Kennedy said he was working with Texas health officials to “control the measles outbreak.” Seminole is the epicenter of the outbreak, which started in late January and continues to swell — with nearly 500 cases in Texas alone, plus cases from the outbreak believed to have spread to New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas and Mexico.

The second young child died Thursday from "what the child's doctor described as measles pulmonary failure,” and did not have underlying health conditions, the Texas State Department of State Health Services said Sunday in a news release. Aaron Davis, a spokesperson for UMC Health System in Lubbock, said that the child was “receiving treatment for complications of measles while hospitalized.”

This is the third known measles-related death tied to this outbreak. One was another elementary school-aged child in Texas and the other was an adult in New Mexico; neither were vaccinated.

It's Kennedy's first visit to the area as health secretary, where he said he met with families of both the 6- and 8-year-old children who died. He said he “developed bonds” with the Mennonite community in West Texas in which the virus is mostly spreading.

Kennedy, an anti-vaccine advocate before ascending to the role of nation’s top health secretary earlier this year, has resisted urging widespread vaccinations as the measles outbreak has worsened under his watch. On Sunday, however, he said in a lengthy statement posted on X that it was “the most effective way to prevent the spread of measles."

The measles, mumps and rubella vaccine has been used safely for more than 60 years and is 97% effective against measles after two doses.

U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention teams have been “redeployed,” Kennedy added Sunday, although the nation’s public health agency never relayed it had pulled back. Neither the CDC nor the state health department included the death in their measles reports issued Friday, but the CDC acknowledged it when asked Sunday.

The number of cases in Texas shot up by 81 between March 28 and April 4, and 16 more people were hospitalized. Nationwide, the U.S. has more than double the number of measles cases it saw in all of 2024.

Republican U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy from Louisiana, a liver doctor whose vote helped cinch Kennedy’s confirmation, called Sunday for stronger messaging from health officials in a post on X.

“Everyone should be vaccinated! There is no treatment for measles. No benefit to getting measles,” he wrote. “Top health officials should say so unequivocally b/4 another child dies.”

Cassidy has requested Kennedy to appear before his health committee Thursday, although Kennedy has not publicly confirmed whether he will attend.

A CDC spokesperson noted the efficacy of the measles vaccine Sunday but stopped short of calling on people to get it. Departing from long-standing public health messaging around vaccination, the spokesperson called the decision a “personal one” and encouraged people to talk with their doctor. People “should be informed about the potential risks and benefits associated with vaccines," the spokesperson added.

Misinformation about how to prevent and treat measles is hindering a robust public health response, including claims about vitamin A supplements that have been pushed by Kennedy and holistic medicine supporters despite doctors’ warnings that it should be given under a physician's orders and that too much can be dangerous.

Doctors at Covenant Children's Hospital in Lubbock, where the first measles death occurred, say they've treated fewer than 10 children for liver issues from vitamin A toxicity, which they found when running routine lab tests on children who are not fully vaccinated and have measles. Dr. Lara Johnson, chief medical officer, said the patients reported using vitamin A to treat and prevent the virus.

Dr. Peter Marks, the Food and Drug Administration’s former vaccine chief, said responsibility for the death rests with Kennedy and his staff. Marks was forced out of the FDA after disagreements with Kennedy over vaccine safety.

“This is the epitome of an absolute needless death,” Marks told The Associated Press in an interview Sunday. “These kids should get vaccinated — that’s how you prevent people from dying of measles.”

Marks also said he recently warned U.S. senators that more deaths would occur if the administration didn’t mount a more aggressive response to the outbreak.

Experts and local health officials expect the outbreak to go on for several more months if not a year. In West Texas, the vast majority of cases are in unvaccinated people and children younger than 17.

With several states facing outbreaks of the vaccine-preventable disease — and declining childhood vaccination rates nationwide — some worry that measles may cost the U.S. its status as having eliminated the disease.

Measles is a respiratory virus that can survive in the air for up to two hours. Up to 9 out of 10 people who are susceptible will get the virus if exposed, according to the CDC. The first shot is recommended for children ages 12 to 15 months, and the second for ages 4 to 6 years.

Seitz reported from Washington. AP reporter Matthew Perrone in Washington contributed to this report.

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