Newcastle has plunged into its most challenging period since the club was bought by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund five years ago.
And its under-pressure manager knows it.
“I’m aware of the results and they aren’t good enough,” Eddie Howe said after a 2-1 home loss to Bournemouth on Saturday, which marked a third straight defeat in the Premier League for Newcastle and a seventh in the last 11 games in all competitions.
Newcastle received boos at full time and the team is languishing in 14th place in the 20-team top flight with five games remaining of the campaign.
Howe — hired in November 2021, weeks after the takeover by Saudi’s Public Investment Fund — has been popular with the Newcastle fans after qualifying for the Champions League in two of the last three seasons. But support might be starting to turn. Last month, the club did not give any assurances he’ll be in charge beyond this season.
“My belief in myself can’t waver, and it’s not," said Howe, who acknowledged his team had become too easy to beat in recent matches. “At this moment of time, I feel very flat.”
Indeed, these are tough times for PIF, which in recent years has spent heavily investing on sporting projects such as LIV Golf and funding the biggest soccer teams in Saudi Arabia.
This week, PIF sold its majority stake in the kingdom’s most successful club, Al-Hilal, and there was also huge speculation about whether the fund was on the brink of cutting its financial backing of LIV. LIV’s 2026 season is going ahead as scheduled, its chief executive said, but the situation beyond that remains cloudy.
At St. James’ Park, Adrien Truffert broke a tie in the 85th minute with his first Premier League goal to win the game for eighth-place Bournemouth, which is unbeaten in 13 straight league matches — including six wins.
Marcus Tavernier turned in Rayan’s cross across the goalmouth in the 32nd minute to put the Cherries ahead. Will Osula equalized in the 68th minute after an initial offside call was overturned in a video review.
Newcastle captain Bruno Guimarães entered in the 62nd minute after recovering from a hamstring injury that had sidelined him since Feb. 10.
Howe said he sees “total commitment” in his squad but hesitated when answering whether he believed his players have the same fire that he had.
“I believe they do,” he eventually replied, “and, as I say, from what I see in the training ground, I don’t see any sense of poor attitude or poor commitment to their work. … If I I did, I would make the adjustments.”
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Newcastle United's William Osula celebrates scoring his side's first goal of the game during the English Premier League soccer match between Newcastle United and Bournemouth, in Newcastle, England, Saturday, April 18, 2026. (Owen Humphreys/PA via AP)
Bournemouth manager Andoni Iraola, left and Newcastle United manager Eddie Howe gesture, ahead of the English Premier League soccer match between Newcastle United and Bournemouth, in Newcastle, England, Saturday, April 18, 2026. (Owen Humphreys/PA via AP)
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A gunman wielding an automatic weapon killed six people and barricaded himself inside a supermarket with hostages in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, on Saturday, before he was shot and killed by police, authorities said.
At least 14 people were wounded and taken to hospital.
The 58-year-old attacker was not named by police, but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he was born in Russia, as authorities worked to piece together a motive for the violence.
The mass shooting — unheard of in wartime Kyiv following Russia's all-out invasion of Ukraine in 2022 — took place in a busy central district of the city, outside an apartment block and a nearby shopping center, leaving bodies on a crowded street as bystanders fled for safety.
An Associated Press reporter at the scene saw victims’ bodies in the street covered with emergency blankets before they were taken away.
“The assailant has been neutralized. He had taken hostages and, tragically, killed one of them. He also murdered four people on the street. Another woman died in the hospital due to severe injuries,” Zelenskyy said.
“It has been established that the attacker set fire to an apartment before taking to the streets with a weapon," Zelenskyy said in a video posted online. "He had a prior criminal record, had lived in the Donetsk region (in eastern Ukraine) for a long period, and was born in Russia.”
Ukraine’s special tactical police units stormed the convenience store after attempts to contact the gunman with a negotiator failed, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said.
The hostages were supermarket customers and staff.
“We tried to persuade him, knowing that there was likely a wounded person inside. We even offered to bring in tourniquets to stop the bleeding, but he did not respond,” Klymenko said. “Consequently, the order was given to neutralize him.”
The minister said the gunman had a valid weapon's permit.
During the 40-minute standoff, a female negotiator wearing body armor and standing behind an armored vehicle used a loudspeaker to call out to the assailant, urging him: “The people are not to blame for this. Please let them go, and we will talk with you.”
Ukraine’s security service, or SBU, described the killings as an act of terrorism.
The shooting took place in Kyiv’s Holosiivskyi district, where several residents said they recognized the gunman.
“I knew him by sight. He seemed like an educated, refined man. You’d never guess he was some kind of criminal,” said 75-year-old Hanna Kulyk, who lived in the same apartment block as the attacker.
“He didn’t socialize much with people — just a greeting and he’d be on his way,” she said. “He lived alone.”
Associated Press journalists Vasilisa Stepanenko and Dan Bashakov in Kyiv, Ukraine, and Katie Marie Davies in Manchester, England, contributed to this report.
An earlier version of this story was corrected to say the gunman shot bystanders, not the government.
A police officer inspects the site where a gunman killed at least six people in the streets before being shot dead by police, in Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, April 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Dan Bashakov)
A police officer is seen at the site where a gunman killed at least six people in the streets before being shot dead by police, in Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, April 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Dan Bashakov)
Bodies of victims are seen at the site where a gunman killed at least six people in the streets before being shot dead by police, in Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, April 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Dan Bashakov)
Bodies of victims are seen at the site where a gunman killed at least six people in the streets before being shot dead by police, in Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, April 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Dan Bashakov)
Police officers are seen at the site where a gunman killed at least six people in the streets before being shot dead by police, in Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, April 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Dan Bashakov)
