Latest news with #Paz
Daily Mirror
a day ago
- Sport
- Daily Mirror
Lionel Messi didn't hold back on attitude of Tottenham's James Maddison replacement option
Tottenham are reportedly considering a move for Como playmaker Nico Paz, who has previously been praised by Lionel Messi for his incredible mentality on the pitch Tottenham Hotspur are reportedly targeting a swoop for Nico Paz, a promising youngster who previously caught Lionel Messi 's eye with his exceptional attitude. Spurs' pursuit of Paz has intensified after Thomas Frank has been forced to explore the transfer market following James Maddison's ACL setback during pre-season. The injury threatens to rule the England midfielder out for the majority of the 2025/2026 season. Frank is understood to be seeking a new number 10 and Paz turned heads after claiming Serie A 's Young Player of the Year accolade for the 2024/25 campaign, registering 14 goal contributions under Cesc Fabregas at Como. His display on his senior debut for Argentina, where he set up Messi during a commanding 6-0 triumph over Bolivia, also earned glowing reviews from the footballing icon. "Nico Paz has an incredible mindset, and that's why he's where he is," Messi said. "Nico has a lot of quality and understands the game perfectly. He has an incredible mindset, and he's with Cesc Fabregas as coach who is my friend and will help him grow a lot." While The Athletic suggests that Tottenham have yet to submit an official bid for Paz, Italian outlets claim that Como have rejected a £35m approach from Frank's side. The club are believed to be holding out for approximately £60m to part ways with the 20-year-old. Paz's journey with Como began when he joined from Real Madrid in 2024 for a fee of £5.2m, playing a crucial role in the Italian side's impressive 10th-place finish in Serie A. However, Spurs may find it tricky to bring Paz to north London. Como are said to be standing firm on any potential sale, and there's the added complication of a 50% sell-on clause held by Real. The Athletic reports that while they chose not to activate a £6.9m buy-back option for Paz this year, they still have an £8m clause for 2026 and a £9m clause for 2027, along with the right to match any offer at any time. Maddison's injury occurred in Spurs' pre-season clash with Newcastle United in South Korea. He went down after an incident away from the ball and had to be stretchered off the field by medical staff. Frank admitted his concern after the game that Maddison could miss a huge chunk of the season, months after injuring the same knee in the previous campaign, with his worst fears later confirmed. Spurs were already on the hunt for a new number 10, having attempted to lure Morgan Gibbs-White away from Nottingham Forest before the England international penned a new deal with his club. With Son Heung-min's departure and Dejan Kulusevski also sidelined due to injury, Paz could become a prime target in the coming weeks.
Metro
2 days ago
- Sport
- Metro
Tottenham have £36m bid for Nico Paz rejected
Tottenham have seen their €40 million (£34.6m) bid for Nico Paz rejected by Como, according to reports in Italy. The 20-year-old, who was born in Tenerife but represents Argentina at international level, joined Como in a €6m (£5m) deal from Real Madrid last year. Paz impressed in his first season in Serie A with six goals and eight assists and has already been linked with a return to Madrid. Spurs, meanwhile, remain in the market for a new attacking midfielder after failing to sign Morgan Gibbs-White from Nottingham Forest. Tottenham's need for further midfield reinforcements has also been heightened this week as James Maddison is expected to miss the majority of the upcoming season with an ACL injury. In The Mixer: Exclusive analysis, FPL tips and transfer talk sent straight to your inbox every week – click here and sign up before Friday to make sure you don't miss the first edition. According to Sky Sport Italy's Gianluca Di Marzio, Spurs have begun talks with Como to sign Paz but their opening bid of €40m (£34.6m) has been turned down by the Serie A side. The report claims that Como value Paz at €70m (£60.7m) and Spurs would need to offer at least €60m (£52m) for a deal to be considered. Real Madrid are also a factor as they included clause as part of their deal to sell Paz to Como last year which allows them to match Spurs' offer, or receive 50 per cent of midfielder's sell-on fee. Speaking at the end of last season, Como's head coach, Cesc Fabregas, made it clear to Paz that he will need regular playing time if he wants to secure a place in Argentina's World Cup squad next summer. More Trending 'We don't know anything, he's our player and for now he's staying with us,' Fabregas said. 'It's important for him to play next season, which will lead to the World Cup. 'I don't know if he's ready for Real Madrid yet , we have an excellent relationship with them because we're very interested in other players from their squad, and they know we play young players. 'If they need us, we're here, but for now they haven't told us anything.' For more stories like this, check our sport page. Follow Metro Sport for the latest news on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. MORE: Man Utd make Rasmus Hojlund transfer decision as Benjamin Sesko deal looms MORE: Liverpool targeting £87m star as back-up transfer option to Alexander Isak MORE: Enzo Maresca issues warning over Estevao 'mistake' ahead of Chelsea debut
Fox News
4 days ago
- Business
- Fox News
Key aide in IRS' Tea Party targeting controversy put on leave after allegations of new anti-GOP effort
A former deputy to Lois Lerner — who oversaw the IRS division accused of targeting conservative groups during the Obama years — was placed on leave after lawmakers raised alarms that a new sub-department she was leading was becoming politicized. In 2013, Lerner was hauled before Congress, where it was revealed her agency had wrongfully scrutinized tax-exempt applications related to the phrases "Tea Party," "9/12" and "Constitution." The Treasury's inspector general later confirmed "inappropriate criteria" was used to target conservative groups and criticized ineffective oversight of systemic bias. IRS Commissioner of Large Business and International Division Holly Paz – Lerner's then-deputy – was placed on leave last week as lawmakers drew attention to a subordinate work-unit aimed at auditing pass-through businesses that Biden-era Commissioner Danny Werfel had created and assigned her to lead. Werfel called the new work-unit a big step in "ensur[ing] the IRS holds the nation's wealthiest filers accountable," and Paz called it an "important change" in the IRS structure. However, by 2025, lawmakers, including Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., warned that the pass-thru-business compliance unit had transformed to be "motivated by ideology rather than principles of sound tax administration." "Pass-through entities form the bulk of Main Street businesses across the country. This includes countless family businesses, professional services firms, and real estate ventures that serve as the backbone of our local economies," Blackburn and Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., wrote to the Treasury in May. Around that time, Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa., warned Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent that Paz's team "has made tongue-in-cheek political comments," including their stated wish to "make basis great again" – a phrase regarding taxation loss/gain that hearkens to President Donald Trump's MAGA slogan. In that regard, Rep. Lloyd Smucker, R-Pa., wrote to IRS Commissioner Billy Long in July that a Biden-era "basis-shifting transaction rule" had "extended the scope" of enforcement. "American taxpayers and businesses deserve clear and consistent tax rules that allow them to confidently comply with the law," Smucker wrote, adding he and Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa., are seeking to have that rule "reconsidered" for the sake of unburdening "Main Street" businesses. Chuck Flint, a former top aide to Blackburn and president of the Alliance for IRS Accountability, told Fox News Digital on Tuesday that Paz's past targeting of conservative groups makes her "unfit for government service." Flint said her statements to Congress and role as LB&I chief "places a cloud over the IRS." "Paz's Biden-era pass-through unit is now bludgeoning conservative businesses with fines and must be disbanded. Commissioner Long is flexing his muscles on the IRS Deep State and sending a signal to rogue bureaucrats by placing Paz on leave." Blackburn warned in her letter to Bessent that an IRS news release referencing targeting "complex arrangements" lacked clear definitions and created the impression that legitimate business structures could be unfairly targeted based on legal structure versus actual tax compliance risk. "Even more concerning, the announcement explicitly states that the bureaucratic changes were designed primarily to 'achieve its goal of increased audit rates in this complex area'." "This focus on increasing audits rather than improving compliance suggests an agenda-driven approach to enforcement," Blackburn said. In her letter, Ernst warned Bessent that Paz's team members "have also undermined their appearance of impartiality by comparing legally acceptable transactions to obscene material, saying, 'It's one of those 'You know it when you see it' – a joking reference to [Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart's] attempt to define pornography. "This team is reportedly acting independently and duplicating existing IRS processes, wasting taxpayer money, and not coordinating with the pre-existing offices," Ernst said. "Most concerning of all, the new pass-through auditors even use a new template for requesting taxpayer information they've deemed 'The Art of the IDR,' (versus 'The Art of the Deal') which treats taxpayers as guilty until proven innocent." "Unfortunately, the Biden administration picked up right where Ms. Lerner and her team left off. On September 20, 2023, then-Commissioner Daniel Werfel announced, with language that resembled Democrat talking points, the creation of a duplicative new work unit [led by Paz] to specifically audit pass-through businesses and partnerships. The new office subjects these businesses to potentially two separate IRS examinations in the same year. "One would think Commissioner Werfel would go to great lengths to avoid hearkening back to previous scandals. Instead, he thumbed his nose at taxpayers by placing Lois Lerner's deputy— Holly Paz—at the helm," Ernst wrote. Lerner was front-and-center during the Obama-era scandal, testifying before Congress as head of the tax-exempt organizations division, as a deluge of reports of targeting right-leaning nonprofits abounded. During the 2013 investigation by the House Oversight Committee, Reps. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and Darrell Issa, R-Calif., demanded Paz answer for "inconsistencies" from a transcribed interview with committee staff involving statements about "intervention" against Tea Party groups. A 2015 report by then-Senate Finance Committee leaders Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Ronald Wyden, D-Ore., found that in other cases, some liberal terminology was also flagged, including "ACORN," "progressive" and "medical marijuana." "While handled poorly, groups on both sides of the political spectrum were treated the same in their efforts to secure tax-exempt status," Wyden said at the time, while then-Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, said Democrats should be equally outraged as Republicans. Fox News Digital reached out to Treasury, the IRS and an email connected to Paz for comment.
Telegraph
12-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
I visited the most remote Michelin-star restaurant in the world – it was well worth the trip
It must be a record. Just seven weeks after opening his newrestaurant Paz, Poul Andrias Ziska has been awarded two Michelin stars. Located on a quiet street in Tórshavn, the tiny capital of the Faroe Islands, its soothing grey walls and blond-wood tables make me feel like I'm in a Nordic boardroom. But in this minimal space the bustling open kitchen is just feet away from my table, and half a dozen chefs are hunched over their work surfaces like clockmakers assembling delicate timepieces. Circulating among them, Ziska peers through his trademark round spectacles, checking the tiny details of the creations on the plates. I last saw Ziska at his previous restaurant – Koks – in a tiny village surrounded by icebergs on the shore of Disko Bay in Greenland. For three summers (2022-2024), under the midnight sun, he and his team served up dishes of musk ox, reindeer lichen and Greenlandic capelin while whales spouted within view of the restaurant windows. In 2017, aged just 27, Ziska earned Faroe Islands their first ever Michelin star, followed by a second star two years later. Koks is now closed, but Ziska is back home in Tórshavn, once again setting out to prove that sometimes challenging Faroese flavours can be made accessible to an international audience. He reinvents local specialities such as fermented lamb, sheep tallow, wind-dried fish and fresh fulmar, so that diners get an understanding of the culinary soul of these islands where nature is raw and tough. 'I cook the things that surround me here in Faroes,' Ziska explains at the end of my meal. He is calm, unassuming and lacks arrogance about his awards. 'I want to use the ingredients I know, and for me there's no substitute for the freshness of what we can source locally.' Just as he did at Koks, Ziska delivers a multi-course tasting menu at Paz, surprising my palate with earthy flavours: caviar in a buttermilk sauce spiced with locally gathered seaweed, horse-mussels with trout roe and pickled pine needles, and sea-snail served with fermented berries and wild coriander oil with turnip glaze. The stars of the show – and Ziska makes every meal a performance – are freshly steamed cod with bladderwrack, and a plump Faroese langoustine tail seared in a reduction of brown butter that somehow manages to taste of the freshness of the North Atlantic depths and yet be as sweet as a caramelised pudding. Tórshavn may be the Faroese capital, but with a population of 20,000 people, it's smaller than Biggleswade. And yet, about a seven-minute walk downhill from the urban cool of Paz, I find myself in a cluster of historic black-timbered buildings with turf roofs. A cosy fish house named Barbara rubs shoulders with its more staid neighbour, Åarstova, specialising in hearty main courses of traditional roast lamb and chunky cod. Remarkably, in this same small section of town there are two more restaurants recommended in the new 2025 Michelin Guide. Both are run under the oversight of Karin Visth, the Swiss sommelier who formerly managed Koks with Poul Andrias Ziska. She told me that she believes Tórshavn attracts tourists who've already been to the world's most gourmet destinations, and are looking for something extra. 'Our guests are often sophisticated travellers, so we have to make sure we deliver on their expectations. Other than seafood, we don't have as much variety in our fresh ingredients as some destinations, but what we do have is very high quality. Things grow slowly here, but they have excellent flavour.' Visth is now also overseeing Ræst, with its high-end tasting menu created by Mexican chef Sebastian Jiménez. He invents dishes that respect Faroese flavours but adds a cheeky Hispanic twist. One of his concoctions is Arctic thyme pannacotta made with poached sweet potatoes, and preserved tangerine skins from his home country. At the same time he also serves up the local mainstay: ræst kjøt (dry-aged lamb produced by the ancient technique of Faroese wind-drying). Like Ziska, he is also capable of wizardry, and my tastebuds have barely recovered from his fermented lamb shank with green chilli and rhubarb (also fermented). If fermented flavours are overwhelming, then head a few metres along the cobbled alleyways of the old town and try Roks. Here, the atmosphere shifts from the dark wooden interior of Ræst to the bright and buzzing mood of a wine bar within sight of the marina. As I cracked through my langoustine claws the staff were monitoring the output of not one but two Danish TV personalities who were documenting their dinners on Instagram. Faroes, for all its rustic charm, has some of the fastest Wi-Fi speeds in Europe. Roks capitalises on the availability of fresh seafood, with a set menu that might offer snow crab with singed onion, and sea urchin toast and caviar served with Faroese vodka made with fresh water obtained from an aquifer discovered while one of Faroes sub-sea tunnels was being excavated. During the seemingly endless summer nights in Tórshavn none of this seems out of the ordinary. Sub-sea tunnels, turf roofs, fermented lamb, roasted fulmar. It's all very natural after a few days here. It's only as you leave for the outside world that you realise that the food is as startlingly dramatic as the landscape. How to do it The 16-course tasting menu at Paz costs DKK 2,500pp (£285), excluding drinks. A tasting menu at Ræst excluding drinks is DKK 1,700pp (£195) Roks offer a five-course menu for DKK695 (£80). Three courses excluding wine at Åarstova costs DKK600 (£68). The Faroes airline Atlantic Airways flies twice weekly from Gatwick to the islands until August 30, with return fares from £125 one way. Three more far-flung places offering fabulous food Mil, Peru At 3,600 metres above sea level and two hours' drive from Cusco in Peru's Sacred Valley, Mil offers an immersive experience which includes a visit to ancient sacred sites and meeting members of the local farming community before eating in the thatched restaurant. Head chef Luis Valderrama Silva provides what he calls a 'vertical journey'. Expect Andean colours, mountain vistas and ancient varieties of vegetables. The eight-course menu costs US $620 (£455) Klein Jan, South Africa In South Africa's magnificent Northern Cape, Jan Hendrik van der Westhuizen has created a unique homage to his birthplace. Better known for his Michelin-starred restaurant in the Old Port of Nice, Jan offers a taste of the vastness of the Kalahari at one of South Africa's best private game reserves. This is locally sourced, often wild meat, and guests can expect Karoo lamb and specialities like springbok. A seven-course lunch including wine pairing costs £120 Kadeau, Bornholm, Denmark Nicolai Nørregaard is a proponent of the New Nordic food manifesto, with its emphasis on fresh, local ingredients cooked to bring out the best of their flavours. On Bornholm Island figs and mulberries are foraged and combined with fresh herbs and vegetables grown in the restaurant 's own garden. Nørregaard also operates a sister restaurant in Copenhagen, but there's nothing to beat the tranquillity of a long summer day on this sleepy island in the Baltic.
Yahoo
30-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Report – Real Madrid Can Wait To Activate Buyback Clause On Inter Milan Target Until Mid-July
Report – Real Madrid Can Wait To Activate Buyback Clause On Inter Milan Target Until Mid-July Real Madrid can wait until mid-July to activate their buyback option on Inter Milan linked Como midfielder Nico Paz. This according to Italian outlet FCInterNews. They report that the Spanish giants' decision could remain up in the air until the 15th. Advertisement Inter Milan have been following midfielder Nico Paz closely for months now. The 20-year-old was one of the outstanding players in Serie A last season. He well and truly hit the ground running in his first season at Como after arriving from Real Madrid. Therefore, Inter have long viewed Paz as a dream signing. It won't be easy to make a deal for the Argentine international. One of the biggest questions has concerned Real Madrid's buyback option on Paz. Real Madrid Can Wait Until July 15th To Active Buyback On Inter Target Nico Paz COMO, ITALY – JANUARY 14: Nico Paz of Como 1907 looks on before the Serie A match between Como 1907 and AC Milan at Stadio G. Sinigaglia on January 14, 2025 in Como, Italy. (Photo by) Reports today emerged that Real Madrid will not activate their buyback option on Paz. Advertisement Today was to be the deadline for Los Blancos to take advantage of that clause. And there are no signs that they will do so. Therefore, it seemed as though Real Madrid would not take control of Paz's future. It would remain in the hands of Como for at least another year. However, FCInterNews report, Los Blancos can actually exercise the option until the 15th of July. That is because of the fact that FIFA has delayed the expiry of clauses set for the end of June until July 15th for clubs participating in the Club World Cup. Accordingly, Paz's future could remain even more up in the air. At least for a couple more weeks.
