Investing in Welsh soccer clubs isn’t just for Hollywood superstars. Four years after Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney bought the Welsh Wrexham AFC team and boosted the moribund club’s status from the lower-rung National League to a historic three consecutive promotions in the English Football League, Snoop Dogg is getting in on the action.

The rapper known as a major American football booster through his Snoop Youth Football League for inner-city youth has become a co-owner and investor in a different Welsh soccer team, Swansea City A.F.C. The one-time Premier League club that currently plays in the English second division, announced the news on Thursday (July 18) in an Instagram post that read, “Swansea City is delighted to announce global rap superstar and multi-platinum selling artist @snoopdogg has become the club’s latest high-profile co-owner and investor.”

In addition, the team posted a promo video featuring a graffiti artists throwing up a mural announcing the news with Snoop providing the voiceover. “For many years I’ve been associated with soccer,” Snoop says over images of him rocking a number of different soccer jerseys (or “kits” as the English refer to them) on stage over the years.

“Yeah, I’ve worn a lot of kits in my life. But now I’m at the part of my life where I’m trying to find a kit that fits. The kit with the hit,” he says. “You know what I’m talking about. One team. The underdogs. [A] team that feels like me, that reals like me. I’m talking about Swansea City. Yeah baby! I’m not a player, I’m a owner. Swansea City, we coming to a hood near you. Big Snoop Dogg, Swansea City, baby, let’s go!” The video ends with the final look at the tagger’s piece, a mural of Snoop wearing the Swansea jersey.

At press time the team had not disclosed the amount of Snoop’s investment or ownership stake.

In a statement on the team’s official website it said, “[Snoop] has also always had a deep love of sport, and football in particular. At one point he was a brand ambassador for the FIFA video game series, and has been pictured wearing a variety of team jerseys over the years…  And it is hoped his global profile and love of football can play an important part in helping us spread the Swansea City name as far and wide as possible in order to boost our commercial performance to further support our aspirations as a club.”

It noted that the official mural painted by Hasan “HASS” Kamil, as seen in the video, was recently unveiled in the West Stand at the team’s home stadium.

In an accompanying statement, Snoop, 53, added, “My love of football is well known, but it feels special to me that I make my move into club ownership with Swansea City. The story of the club and the area really struck a chord with me. This is a proud, working class city and club. An underdog that bites back, just like me. I’m proud to be part of Swansea City. I am going to do all I can to help the club, and I look forward to getting to know all my YJBS.”

Swansea City chief executive Tom Gorringe added, “It is very exciting for us as a football club to formally welcome Snoop Dogg as a co-owner and investor into Swansea City. His enjoyment and love of football is well documented, and he has often spoken of a desire to get more involved in the sport. We are delighted he believes that being part of Swansea City is the right way to realise that ambition. Dogg is passionate about this project and helping us continue to raise the profile of the club to as wide an audience as possible.”

The team’s ownership group also had high praise, writing, “To borrow a phrase from Snoop’s back catalogue, this announcement is the next episode for Swansea City as we seek to create new opportunities to boost the club’s reach and profile. Snoop’s colossal global fanbase and audience will certainly help us do that, and he has made clear to us throughout this process just how excited he is at the prospect of joining the club.”

Last weekend Snoop helped reveal the look of the club’s 2025-2026 home kit in a video in which he said, “See that? That’s official. Official like a referee with a whistle, baby. We comin’ to get it,” while showing off the white shirt with “Dogg” embroidered on the back.

Check out Swansea’s announcement below.

The House gave final approval to President Donald Trump’s request to claw back about $9 billion for public broadcasting and foreign aid early Friday as Republicans intensified their efforts to target institutions and programs they view as bloated or out of step with their agenda.

The vote marked the first time in decades that a president has successfully submitted such a rescissions request to Congress, and the White House suggested it won’t be the last. Some Republicans were uncomfortable with the cuts, yet supported them anyway, wary of crossing Trump or upsetting his agenda.

The House passed the bill by a vote of 216-213. It now goes to Trump for his signature.

Opponents voiced concerns not only about the programs targeted, but about Congress ceding its spending powers to the executive branch as investments approved on a bipartisan basis were being subsequently canceled on party-line votes. They said previous rescission efforts had at least some bipartisan buy-in and described the Republican package as unprecedented.

No Democrats supported the measure when it passed the Senate, 51-48, in the early morning hours Thursday. Final passage in the House was delayed for several hours as Republicans wrestled with their response to Democrats’ push for a vote on the release of Jeffrey Epstein files.

The package cancels about $1.1 billion for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and nearly $8 billion for a variety of foreign aid programs, many designed to help countries where drought, disease and political unrest endure.

The effort to claw back a sliver of federal spending came just weeks after Republicans also muscled through Trump’s tax and spending cut bill without any Democratic support. The Congressional Budget Office has projected that measure will increase the U.S. debt by about $3.3 trillion over the coming decade.

“No one is buying the the notion that Republicans are actually trying to improve wasteful spending,” said Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries.

The cancellation of $1.1 billion for the CPB represents the full amount it is due to receive during the next two budget years.

The White House says the public media system is politically biased and an unnecessary expense.

The corporation distributes more than two-thirds of the money to more than 1,500 locally operated public television and radio stations, with much of the remainder assigned to National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service to support national programming.

Democrats were unsuccessful in restoring the funding in the Senate.

Lawmakers with large rural constituencies voiced particular concern about what the cuts to public broadcasting could mean for some local public stations in their state.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said the stations are “not just your news — it is your tsunami alert, it is your landslide alert, it is your volcano alert.”

As the Senate debated the bill Tuesday, a 7.3 magnitude earthquake struck off the remote Alaska Peninsula, triggering tsunami warnings on local public broadcasting stations that advised people to get to higher ground.

Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., said he secured a deal from the White House that some money administered by the Interior Department would be repurposed to subsidize Native American public radio stations in about a dozen states.

But Kate Riley, president and CEO of America’s Public Television Stations, a network of locally owned and operated stations, said that deal was “at best a short-term, half-measure that will still result in cuts and reduced service at the stations it purports to save.”

Max McNown is giving fans even more of his soul-baring sound. The 23-year-old singer-songwriter has released the deluxe edition of his sophomore album, Night Diving (The Cost of Growing Up), featuring 11 new tracks that chronicle themes of grief, healing, young love and self-discovery.

The expanded set, out now via Fugitive Recordings x The Orchard x Columbia Records, arrives as McNown continues a meteoric rise in the country-folk space. Led by the focus track “Forever Ain’t Long Enough,” the deluxe album also includes a new version of “Night Diving” featuring country artist Cameron Whitcomb.

Releasing the single “Better Me For You (Brown Eyes)” last November, McKnown recently told Billboard that he felt reluctant to share such a vulnerable single about his girlfriend of nearly two years. But the track quickly resonated with fans, becoming his first entry on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart and the Billboard Hot 100 — and soon, the 23-year-old’s perspective changed.

“I wasn’t expecting a song that is so specifically about my girlfriend to do so well,” he reflects. “It gives me a lot of encouragement to keep writing personal songs about my life.”

McNown wrote “Better Me For You” in May 2024 during a session with Trent Dabbs, Ava Suppelsa and writer-producer Jamie Kenney, at the lattermost’s Nashville-area studio. At the time, McNown had a basic melody, a simple concept and the written phrase, “I didn’t know you’d have brown eyes,” which became central to the song’s chorus.

Produced by Jamie Kenney (Colbie Caillat, Laci Kaye Booth), the new tracks expand McNown’s signature blend of folk, country and indie pop, with earthy tones and introspective lyrics inspired by his Pacific Northwest upbringing. Tracks like “Same Questions” and “St. Helen’s Alpenglow” explore heartbreak and reflection, while “The Cost of Growing Up” provides a melancholic meditation on life’s challenges.

The Nashville-based artist will bring his new music to stages across North America on the Forever Ain’t Long Enough tour, kicking off Aug. 21 in Kansas City. He is also set to perform at Lollapalooza on Aug. 2.

Soccer Mommy (a.k.a. Sophie Allison) has shared a stellar rendition of Pavement’s “Gold Soundz” as part of her recent appearance on Like a Version, the long-running covers segment from Australian radio station triple j.

Recorded during Allison’s recent Australian tour in June, the two-song set began with a standard original, which in this case was “Abigail,” the final single from Soccer Mommy’s 2024 album Evergreen.

The cover portion of the set saw Allison and her band turn their attention to 1994, sharing a bittersweet version of “Gold Soundz” – the second single from Pavement’s second LP, Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain.

“I chose this song ’cause I love Pavement,” Allison said in a post-performance interview. “I’m a huge Pavement fan. I’ve actually covered another Pavement song before, but I just always really liked this one and I thought it fit my voice nicely.

“I think it’s just really catchy. It gets stuck in your head,” she added. “It has a nice melody and nice guitar parts. I really like the jangliness of the guitars in this song. I think that’s what drew me to it.”

Indeed, Allison has certainly shown her love of Pavement in the past. In 2022, Soccer Mommy was invited to perform at Pavements 1933 to 2022, the indie rock outfit’s New York City pop-up museum, where she shared covers of “Here,” “Gold Soundz,” and “Spit on a Stranger.”

The following year, Soccer Mommy’s Karaoke Night EP featured covers of Taylor Swift, Slowdive, Sheryl Crow, and R.E.M., while opening with a recorded rendition of Pavement’s “Here.”

“I do love Pavement,” Allison continued. “I really, really love Pavement. I first  discovered Pavement when I was in high school, and that’s kind of when I got really into them, and especially Slanted and Enchanted was my favorite album. But I’ve just always really liked them. 

“It was one of those bands that I got into in high school and never grew out of, and particularly there’s a little bit of a renaissance right now with them kind of touring again and doing stuff together. So I think that’s why it’s fresh in the mind.”

Pavement have been sporadically active since their 2022 reunion, with a run of international tour dates taking place since. More recently, they’ve also been the subject of the aptly-titled Pavements, an experimental semi-fictional biopic directed by Alex Ross Perry which was officially released in June.

For his part, Perry has expressed his love of Soccer Mommy’s nascent cover, commenting on triple j’s Instagram post of the track, “I extremely support this.”

Having first launched in 2004, the Like a Version series has gone from being a near-impromptu acoustic affair to featuring larger studio productions. Numerous artists have taken part over the past two decades, with the likes of Billie Eilish, Childish Gambino, Arctic Monkeys, and more reinventing classic tracks in the process.

View Soccer Mommy’s cover of Pavement’s ‘Gold Soundz’ below.

The Chef is cooking again. Raekwon is back with his first solo album since 2017’s The Wild as the Wu-Tang Clan spitter served up his The Emperor’s New Clothes LP on Friday (July 18).

The 55-year-old recruited a savvy group of talented MCs to join him on the project, with hard-hitting verses coming from fellow Wu members Ghostface Killah, Inspectah Deck and Method Man as well as Nas, Westside Gunn, Conway the Machine and Benny the Butcher.

On the production side, Rae made sure to assemble the right crew to supply heat behind the boards with beats from Swizz Beatz, J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League and Nottz throughout the 17-track album.

It’s a busy and emotional week for Raekwon with the Wu-Tang Clan wrapping up their final tour collectively on Friday (July 18) in Philly. Rae and the Staten Island legends said goodbye to NYC on Wednesday night (July 16), which saw the iconic crew rock Madison Square Garden in front of a sold-out crowd.

The Wu treated the hometown show to plenty of special guests, as Redman, Lil Kim, Big Daddy Kane, Slick Rick, The LOX, SWV and Havoc touched the stage.

While this is the Wu-Tang Clan’s last tour, Raekwon isn’t ruling out another Wu album down the line.

“I mean, we tryna get it together, you know? Everybody’s spread out. Everybody’s doing something great in their life, so when it’s time for everybody to get in the room, it just seems like it’s the hardest s—t in the world,” Rae said in a video. “But it ain’t like we don’t want to.”

He continued: “And then you got so many minds. You throw a beat out and a n—a be like, ‘I like that, I don’t like that.’ It’s hard. It’s real hard, but don’t count us out. Don’t never count us out.”

Listen to The Emperor’s New Clothes below.