Companies owned by a longtime US government and military contractor have been operating several airplanes linking regional supply routes to the stronghold of a paramilitary force accused of genocide in Sudan, a Reuters investigation has found.

To the outside world, Steven Shaulis, a 63-year-old US Army Special Forces veteran, is the head of the Singapore-based CADG, formerly known as Central Asia Development Group, a global firm that has held US and United Nations contracts for over 20 years. Shaulis’ companies have earned at least $419 million from American taxpayers through military and foreign-aid projects, government records show.

Behind the scenes, Reuters found, Shaulis-controlled firms have operated at least three aging Boeing aircraft flying to key logistics hubs used by the Rapid Support Forces, the Sudanese paramilitary group accused of atrocities in the Darfur region.

The clash between Argentina and England in the soccer World Cup semi-final is loaded with history and rivalry, but also represents an interesting contrast of evolving national identities.

England, once the epitome of a team that stuck to ideas of nationhood defined by their supposed superiority to others — having invented the game, they declined to take part in the first three World Cups — now has a more inclusive approach, reflecting the country's increasing ‌diversity and multicultural make-up.

Argentina's sense of national identity, by contrast, remains rooted in an origin myth from the 1920s, which in many ways was set up in direct opposition to the English, cultural historians say.