Global Pulse

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  • In one Nepal district, flood catastrophe is measured in bodies and burial trenches

    In one Nepal district, flood catastrophe is measured in bodies and burial trenches

    In the wake of catastrophic flash floods and mudslides that tore through the Himalayan region earlier this week, authorities in Nepal’s south-central Chitwan district have been forced to take unprecedented action: burying hundreds of unidentifiable disaster victims in temporary communal graves, a move that has sparked fierce public debate over cultural traditions and disaster response protocols.

    The disaster, which struck Wednesday, has already claimed at least 800 lives across Nepal and the Tibet Autonomous Region of China, with more than 3,000 people still unaccounted for. Many of the bodies recovered in Chitwan were swept hundreds of kilometers downstream along the Bhotekoshi River from the flood’s hardest-hit epicenter, leaving local officials overwhelmed by the sudden influx of remains. As of Saturday, around 250 bodies were still waiting for identification, and officials confirmed that roughly 100 victims had already been laid to rest in hastily dug temporary trenches in a forested area of the district, with another 50 set for burial on Sunday after DNA samples are collected.

    Local law enforcement coordinating the operation say the rushed burials are a necessary response to a cascade of overlapping crises. Anil Thapa, a police inspector leading the body management effort, explained that most remains spent up to four days submerged in rushing floodwaters, and decomposition was already well advanced by the time they were recovered. Compounding this challenge, Chitwan faces severe limits to its forensic infrastructure and morgue capacity, unable to accommodate the surge of bodies brought in by the flood. Sweltering heat and high regional humidity have further sped decomposition, and public health officials have warned that leaving decomposing remains unburied poses a serious risk of infectious disease outbreaks.

    The logistical challenges have been exacerbated by fresh natural hazards in the region. On Sunday, new landslides blocked the key highway connecting Nepal’s capital Kathmandu to Chitwan, just one day after the route was partially reopened. This disruption has complicated both the movement of remains into the capital and the delivery of critical relief supplies to flood-impacted communities. Across the flood zone, the scale of destruction remains visible: homes, vehicles, and farm equipment are still left half-buried in thick mud deposited by the mudslides.

    The decision to proceed with temporary burials has drawn sharp criticism from local residents, families of the missing, and prominent public figures, particularly given Nepal’s status as a majority-Hindu nation where traditional custom requires cremation of the dead, often conducted on riverbanks in the presence of immediate family. Ruby Chaudhary, a local resident who is still waiting for news of two missing relatives, said authorities had no right to proceed with burials without family consent. “The dead deserve to be treated with dignity,” Chaudhary said. “Our tradition is to cremate them on the riverbank, surrounded by their immediate family.”

    Former Nepali prime minister Baburam Bhattarai also joined the criticism, arguing that disposing of unidentified bodies before search and rescue operations are concluded, and without broader consultation with affected families, is inappropriate. In a social media post Saturday night, Bhattarai noted that if permanent morgue space was insufficient, authorities could have mobilized emergency resources to set up temporary cold storage facilities instead of rushing to burials.

    Nepali officials have defended the measure, emphasizing that the burials are only a temporary solution, not a permanent disposition of remains. Thapa stressed that authorities have taken steps to preserve future identification: DNA samples are collected from all victims, photographs of distinguishing features are taken, other identifying details are recorded, and each body is assigned a unique reference number to allow families to claim remains at a later date. “If someone is able to verify the identity later using the available information, they can take back the body and perform the appropriate funeral rites,” Thapa explained.

    Amrit Bahadur Rai, Nepal’s foreign secretary, added that the process aligns with internationally accepted disaster management standards, including protocols established by the International Committee of the Red Cross. Speaking at a press briefing in Kathmandu, Rai confirmed that once identities are confirmed through matching records, families will be permitted to exhume the remains to carry out traditional funeral rituals.

  • Boat carrying some 270 people capsizes off northern Cyprus – reports

    Boat carrying some 270 people capsizes off northern Cyprus – reports

    A major maritime emergency is unfolding off the coast of northern Cyprus, after a passenger boat carrying approximately 270 people overturned in open water, triggering an urgent search and rescue operation, local media has confirmed.

    According to Murat Senkul, mayor of the coastal Kyrenia town, rescuers have so far made contact with 159 of the passengers onboard the capsized vessel. Senkul described the ongoing incident as extremely serious, in remarks to Turkish broadcaster CNN Turk.

    The boat started taking on water roughly four nautical miles from the northern Cypriot shore, local reports indicate. Footage broadcast by regional television outlets shows the ferry completely overturned in the water, with dozens of passengers clinging to the upturned hull while wearing life vests to stay afloat.

    Emergency response teams have deployed multiple assets to the accident site: both military and civilian helicopters are conducting air searches, while coastguard vessels are maneuvering around the capsized hull to pull survivors from the water. On the nearby shore, ambulance teams have set up staging points to receive rescued passengers and deliver emergency medical care.

    Erhan Arikli, transport minister for the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), told reporters that 100 passengers have successfully been brought to land as of the latest update.

    Contextually, the TRNC controls the northern third of the island of Cyprus, which has been divided into two administrative regions since a 1974 Turkish military intervention. The entity is only recognized as a sovereign state by Turkey, with no broader international endorsement.

    This is an active breaking news story, and new details are expected to be released as rescue operations continue. Readers can access real-time updates via the BBC News mobile application, or by following the BBC Breaking account on X for the latest alerts.

  • NASA launches Roman telescope on cosmic mapping mission

    NASA launches Roman telescope on cosmic mapping mission

    In a landmark moment for space exploration, NASA launched its next-generation flagship observatory, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, on Sunday from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Lifting off aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket at 7:26 a.m. local time (1126 GMT), the 12-meter-tall telescope begins a multi-year mission to construct the most comprehensive map of the cosmos ever created and tackle long-standing unsolved questions in fundamental physics.

    The $4 billion project, more than a decade in development, honors Nancy Grace Roman, a pioneering American astronomer widely known as the “Mother of Hubble” for her foundational work on NASA’s iconic Hubble Space Telescope. Speaking at a pre-launch ceremony at NASA’s Houston headquarters Friday, former President Donald Trump emphasized the telescope’s transformative potential, noting it will open new windows into understanding the universe’s deepest secrets.

    Unlike existing space observatories, Roman boasts a revolutionary field of view more than 100 times larger than Hubble’s, and far wider than that of the James Webb Space Telescope. Positioned at a vantage point 1.5 million kilometers from Earth — a journey that will take roughly 100 days to complete — the telescope will work in tandem with other leading observatories, including Webb, to advance multiple branches of astronomical research.

    Among its core science goals, Roman is tasked with discovering thousands of exoplanets outside our solar system and cataloging tens of thousands of supernovae, the violent death throes of massive stars. “It will be the biggest catalog of astronomical objects anybody’s ever produced, and it will help us understand how common solar systems like our own are,” Dave Content, Roman’s technical manager, told Agence France-Presse.

    The mission’s highest-profile objective is unpacking the nature of dark matter and dark energy, two invisible phenomena that together account for roughly 95 percent of the entire universe. While dark matter is hypothesized to act as an invisible gravitational glue holding galaxies together, dark energy is the repulsive force driving the accelerating expansion of the universe. Equipped with advanced infrared capabilities, Roman can detect light that originated from celestial objects billions of years ago, effectively allowing astronomers to peer back into the universe’s earliest history and trace the evolution of these mysterious forces.

    Roman’s data will also complement ongoing work by the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile and the European Space Agency’s Euclid probe, and scientists say the mission could upend long-held models of cosmic evolution. Senior project scientist Julie McEnery noted that recent astronomical observations have cast doubt on the standard cosmological model that underpins modern understanding of the universe’s early expansion. “Recent observations hint that our standard model of the universe is incorrect,” she told reporters Saturday ahead of launch. “Roman will definitively say, ‘Yeah, the model works, or it doesn’t.’ And if it doesn’t, it’s going to provide us with the precision and quality of data that will allow us to start to distinguish between those options.”

    All data collected by Roman will be made publicly available to scientists and casual enthusiasts worldwide, though the scale of data collection presents unique logistical challenges. The telescope will generate roughly 1.3 terabytes of new data every day, a volume too large for most personal computing devices to store or process. For McEnery, however, the massive dataset is part of the mission’s greatest promise. “I very much hope, and in fact expect, that the most exciting science from Roman will be a surprise, something we couldn’t predict, and that will set the stage for the next deeper set of questions for future missions to address,” she said.

  • At least 7 dead after ferry carrying nearly 270 passengers and crew capsizes off northern Cyprus

    At least 7 dead after ferry carrying nearly 270 passengers and crew capsizes off northern Cyprus

    A maritime disaster off the northern coast of Cyprus has left at least seven people dead and 24 others unaccounted for, according to Turkish media reports of Sunday’s capsizing incident. The catamaran ferry, carrying a total of 269 passengers and crew, was en route from the port of Kyrenia (also called Girne) in the Turkish-administered northern region of ethnically split Cyprus to Tasucu, a Turkish port located in Mersin province.

    Northern Cyprus Prime Minister Unal Ustel confirmed to Turkey’s state-owned TRT news outlet that 237 people have been pulled from the water alive by rescue teams. Search and rescue operations are still actively underway to locate the 24 passengers and crew who remain missing following the incident.

    Per Prime Minister Ustel’s account, the vessel encountered severe, unfavorable weather conditions shortly after it departed its starting port. Just 15 minutes after leaving the dock, the ferry began taking on water, and an emergency distress call was dispatched immediately to local authorities. TRT further specified that the water intrusion began roughly 7.5 kilometers, or 4 nautical miles, off the northern Cypriot coast.

    Kyrenia Mayor Murat Senkul added that the sunken vessel is owned by Turkish ferry operator Filo Denizcilik, and capsized in waters close to Diana Beach on Northern Cyprus’ coastline. Raw video footage captured from the disaster zone shows survivors clad in life vests treading water around the overturned hull of the ferry, waiting for extraction by rescue teams.

  • A British woman is fatally stabbed at a station in Germany. Police detains a suspect

    A British woman is fatally stabbed at a station in Germany. Police detains a suspect

    BERLIN – Law enforcement officials in Germany have confirmed that a suspect has been taken into custody following a fatal knife attack that claimed the life of a 31-year-old British national early Sunday in the Bavarian town of Rosenheim.

    The violent assault unfolded at Rosenheim’s central train station, where the woman was found with critical stab wounds, Rosenheim Police Department announced in a public statement. Responding medical teams immediately transported the victim to a local acute care hospital, but medical staff were unable to save her life, and she was pronounced dead shortly after arrival due to the severity of her injuries.

    Immediately after the attack, local law enforcement requested backup from federal police units, who arrived at the scene rapidly and apprehended the 27-year-old suspect without further incident. Investigators have confirmed the suspect is a German citizen who resides in the neighboring county of Fürstenfeldbruck, located roughly 60 kilometers from Rosenheim.

    In adherence to strict German data privacy regulations, authorities have declined to disclose the full names of both the victim and the accused. As of the latest update, the investigation remains in its active early phase, with detectives still working to piece together the full sequence of events and establish a clear motive for the deadly attack.

    Investigators have issued a public appeal for information, asking any members of the public who were present at the Rosenheim train station between late Saturday night and early Sunday morning to come forward. Specifically, law enforcement is seeking details from any witnesses who may have observed a verbal dispute or physical confrontation in the station during that time frame, which could provide critical context to the attack.

  • British woman killed in stabbing at German railway station

    British woman killed in stabbing at German railway station

    A violent stabbing incident at a major Bavarian railway hub has left a 31-year-old British woman dead, German law enforcement authorities have confirmed. The attack unfolded shortly before 1 a.m. local time (midnight BST) on Sunday at Rosenheim station, located in southern Germany’s Upper Bavaria region.

    Following the assault, emergency medical teams rushed the injured woman to a nearby hospital, but she ultimately succumbed to her severe wounds, Bavarian Police announced in an official statement.

    law enforcement response was rapid: officers took a 27-year-old German male suspect into custody directly at the scene within moments of the attack. As of the latest update, investigators have not yet established a clear motive or full contextual background for the violence, with probe work ongoing.

    To advance their investigation, police have issued a public appeal for any individuals who were present at the station between late Saturday and early Sunday and observed an argument or physical confrontation prior to the stabbing to come forward and contact investigative teams.

    Rosenheim, which ranks among the largest urban centers in Upper Bavaria, serves as a critical transportation junction for international rail travelers connecting Germany to popular Austrian destinations including Vienna, Salzburg, and Innsbruck. The incident has shocked local communities and drawn cross-border attention following the confirmation of the British victim’s death.

  • The many snags in Erdogan’s many strategic wins

    The many snags in Erdogan’s many strategic wins

    Over the course of his decades-long leadership, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has demonstrated formidable strategic skill in rebuilding Turkish influence across territories that once formed the core of the Ottoman Empire. What makes this expansion even more striking is that Ankara has achieved these gains with a gross national product far smaller than that of traditional European regional powers like Italy, outpacing Rome in influence across several key theaters.

    Today, Turkey has effectively replaced Italy as the primary external power in Libya’s Tripolitania region, gaining a critical foothold that lets it share control over the strategic Sicilian Channel. It has also cemented its position in Somalia, and extended its sway across the majority-Muslim “green backbone” of the Balkans, a central geographic corridor for the entire region. These shifts have sparked sharp comparisons: either Turkish statecraft is extraordinarily effective, or Italian foreign policy has squandered its resources to little gain.

    But Erdogan’s string of diplomatic successes has now set the stage for new, unforeseen challenges, rooted in the landmark strategic treaty Ankara concluded recently in Jeddah alongside Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. This new alliance opens unprecedented possibilities for reshaping the power dynamics of the broader Middle East. Militarily, it unites Pakistan — the world’s only officially recognized nuclear-armed Islamic state — with Turkey, a country that boasts NATO’s second-largest land army and a cutting-edge defense industry that pioneered modern drone warfare. Economically, Saudi Arabia’s massive energy wealth gives the bloc the capacity to fund even the most costly defense innovations and sustain long-term strategic conflicts.

    This concentrated alignment of major Islamic powers has immediately raised alarms in Israel, particularly because Erdogan has positioned himself as one of the most vocal global champions of Palestinian statehood. Just days after signing the Jeddah agreement, Erdogan launched international legal proceedings against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, cementing the perception of the new bloc as a direct strategic threat to Jerusalem.

    The alliance also threatens to disrupt the long-running movement toward an Arab resurgence, often referred to as the Arab Risorgimento. This movement grew out of the uprisings that swept the Middle East and North Africa decades ago, rooted in a century-old vision first outlined by T.E. Lawrence in *The Seven Pillars of Wisdom*: the unification of the entire Arab Sunni world under a single political banner. Originally, this project was explicitly anti-Ottoman, as the Ottoman Empire controlled the vast majority of Arab lands for centuries.

    It is no coincidence, then, that Egypt — the Arab world’s most populous state, home to roughly half of the global Sunni Arab population and the de facto leader of the Arab League — has refused to join the Jeddah Pact. Cairo is widely believed to be advancing its own competing regional projects that clash with the goals of the new three-party alliance.

    Shia Iran has also reacted with immediate hostility to the agreement. Tehran views Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey as too closely aligned with the United States to trust their stated intentions, and has spent years building its own regional influence during its long-standing standoff with Washington and Jerusalem. Iran now holds sway over multiple smaller regional states and maintains deep ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and its affiliated movements across the Middle East.

    These competing blocs have created a tangible risk of a deep split within the global Sunni world. One camp would center on Turkey, driven by Erdogan’s ambition to restore a sphere of influence matching the Ottoman Empire’s historic reach. The other would likely be led by Egypt or factions aligned with the Muslim Brotherhood, focused on advancing the century-old goal of a unified Arab Sunni state.

    For Israel, this shifting landscape carries unambiguous negative implications. Israel’s strategic perimeter has expanded far beyond its traditional borders, creating new vulnerabilities that will grow increasingly difficult to defend. The country now faces a bloc of three hostile mid-sized powers, all poised to challenge the regional order that Jerusalem has sought to impose at the first available opportunity.

    This analysis is by Giuseppe Cucchi, a retired lieutenant general and former military adviser to Italian prime ministers Romano Prodi and Massimo D’Alema, originally published by the Appia Institute and republished with permission.

  • Norwegians line up at churches for emotional memorials remembering the late King Harald V

    Norwegians line up at churches for emotional memorials remembering the late King Harald V

    OSLO, Norway — Thousands of Norwegians gathered across the country at dawn on Sunday, queuing outside cathedrals and parish churches to attend nationwide memorial services honoring King Harald V, who passed away on Friday at the age of 89 after a decades-long reign.

    Opening the central memorial service at Oslo Cathedral, Dean Pål Kristian Balstad acknowledged the shared loss gripping the nation, telling attendees: “This Sunday is different. His Majesty King Harald is dead. A nation grieves, and a family has lost their spouse, father, grandfather, and father-in-law.” While the royal family attended a smaller service at Asker Church, located southwest of the capital, the core service in Oslo was broadcast live to audiences across the country via Norway’s public broadcaster NRK.

    Since the announcement of Harald’s death on Friday morning, tens of thousands of Norwegians have traveled to central Oslo to lay flowers, leave handwritten condolence cards, and light candles outside the Royal Palace, where Harald’s coffin was transported from the local hospital late Friday. While an official date for the state funeral has not yet been finalized, the entire nation has entered a formal period of national mourning. NRK reports that hundreds of Norwegians have voluntarily postponed major personal celebrations, including weddings and christenings, to respect the period of national grief.

    On Saturday evening, Harald’s son — now formally styled King Haakon VIII, who immediately succeeded to the throne upon his father’s death — delivered his first public address as Norway’s new monarch, offering a heartfelt eulogy to his late father. Fighting back tears during the live televised broadcast, Haakon spoke emotionally of his loss, saying: “I’m going to miss him. I’ll miss his laughter. His good-natured way of dealing with people and situations.” Haakon committed to carrying forward his father’s legacy of dedicated service to Norway, stating: “That means — in the ultimate sense — being willing to risk everything, even one’s life, for Norway’s freedom and independence.”

    The new monarch has adopted the royal motto “All for Norway,” a phrase with deep roots in Norwegian royal history that was first used by his great-grandfather after the restoration of the Norwegian monarchy in the early 20th century. Haakon’s wife, Mette-Marit, has assumed the title of Queen, while the couple’s eldest child, Ingrid Alexandra, is now formally recognized as Crown Princess and first in line to the throne.

    In the coming months, Haakon will face the immediate challenge of rebuilding public confidence in the Norwegian monarchy, which has been rocked by recent controversies. Queen Mette-Marit previously faced public scrutiny over past connections to deceased disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, while Haakon’s stepson, Marius Borg Høiby, was convicted of rape in 2024, drawing widespread condemnation and calls for royal reform.

    The Norwegian monarchy traces its uninterrupted lineage back to King Harald Fairhair in the 9th century, making it one of the oldest continuing monarchies in the world. When Norway regained full independence from Sweden in 1905, a national public referendum saw 75% of voters endorse the restoration of a native monarchy. Today, the role of the Norwegian monarch is largely ceremonial, with all governing power held by an elected parliament, but the royal family remains a widely recognized cultural institution that supports Norwegian trade, tourism, and global diplomacy for one of the world’s wealthiest nations.

  • Pakistan will award nurse for saving the sole newborn survivor of a hospital nursery fire

    Pakistan will award nurse for saving the sole newborn survivor of a hospital nursery fire

    A devastating fire that tore through a neonatal nursery at Pakistan’s leading public hospital in Islamabad last week has left the nation in mourning, while also shining a light on the extraordinary courage of a veteran nurse who risked her life to save one infant from the blaze.

    The fire erupted on the third floor of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), the country’s flagship federal government hospital, claiming the lives of 14 newborns being cared for in the unit. Only one baby survived the incident, thanks to the quick action of 50-something nurse Razia Noreen. A 51-second widely circulated CCTV clip captured Noreen sprinting into the smoke-filled, burning nursery just moments after the fire broke out, emerging seconds later with the tiny infant safely in her arms. She attempted to rush back inside to rescue the remaining babies, but was forced back by intense, rapidly spreading flames and thick toxic smoke that made reentry impossible.

    In an emotional interview with Pakistani private broadcaster Samaa TV on Sunday, a tearful Noreen said she had only done what her job demanded of her. “I did not do it for a reward. I love children, and caring for them is my passion,” she explained, adding that the speed of the blaze left no time for additional rescues. “The fire spread through the nursery within two minutes.” The grief of failing to save the other 14 infants has weighed heavily on Noreen, who told reporters the tragedy haunts her still. “I cannot sleep. Those babies do not let me sleep,” she said.

    Following an official inquiry ordered by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, the government confirmed Noreen will receive Sitara-i-Khidmat—translated as the Star of Service—one of Pakistan’s most prestigious civilian honors, awarded to individuals who demonstrate extraordinary public service or national contribution. Along with the award, she will receive a cash prize of approximately 10 million Pakistani rupees, equal to around $36,000. The announcement of the award has drawn overwhelming public praise across social media platforms in Pakistan, with thousands of users commending Noreen’s bravery and compassion.

    Prime Minister Sharif echoed that public praise, saying Noreen’s actions showed exceptional courage and unwavering devotion to her duty. The official inquiry’s findings aligned with witness and CCTV accounts, confirming Noreen carried the surviving newborn out to safety just eight seconds after entering the nursery, and that the entire unit was consumed by catastrophic fire within roughly two minutes of ignition. There were 15 newborns in the unit at the time the fire broke out.

    In the wake of the tragedy, eight senior hospital officials have already been suspended from their posts, with formal disciplinary proceedings launched against all eight. Sharif has also ordered criminal investigations to proceed against any individuals found ultimately responsible for safety failures that contributed to the deaths. As of this report, investigators have not yet confirmed the exact cause of the fire.

    The deadly incident has spurred national action, with regulators announcing comprehensive fire safety audits and reviews for all hospitals and healthcare facilities across Pakistan. This tragedy marks one of the deadliest incidents involving children in Pakistan in recent months. Just this past June, 14 schoolchildren lost their lives in the eastern city of Lahore when the roof of an under-construction tutoring center collapsed onto them.

  • Chelsea signs Argentina’s World Cup winner Emiliano Martínez from Aston Villa on a 3-year contract

    Chelsea signs Argentina’s World Cup winner Emiliano Martínez from Aston Villa on a 3-year contract

    In a high-profile transfer move that has reshaped English Premier League goalkeeping ranks, Chelsea Football Club announced Sunday it has secured the signature of star Argentine goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez from Aston Villa. The 33-year-old, one of the most decorated shot-stoppers in modern football, has put pen to paper on a three-year contract that brings him to Stamford Bridge ahead of the 2025-26 season.

    For Martínez, the switch to West London was not a difficult decision to weigh. “Coming to Chelsea, for me and my family, was an easy decision to make and I’m just over the moon. I can’t wait to get started,” the goalkeeper told reporters after the announcement. “I want to be successful here. I’m someone who wants to win at everything I do and I want to bring that winning mentality here to this football club because it’s a club built to win titles, so I think it’s a perfect match.”

    The arrival of Martínez fills an immediate gap in new Blues manager Xabi Alonso’s starting lineup. Chelsea’s current number one Robert Sánchez turned in another underwhelming performance in the club’s opening Premier League fixture against Fulham, prompting the Chelsea hierarchy to accelerate their pursuit of a proven elite goalkeeper. Martínez is now expected to walk straight into the starting job at Stamford Bridge.

    Aston Villa cleared the path for Martínez’s exit earlier this month when the club completed the signing of Zion Suzuki, the US-born Japanese goalkeeper from Italian side Parma. The move made Martinez’s departure a mutually beneficial arrangement for all parties involved.

    Few goalkeepers in the game can match Martínez’s trophy haul at both international and club levels. The Argentine has been his country’s undisputed starting goalkeeper since 2021, earning 67 international caps to date. He backstopped Argentina to the 2022 FIFA World Cup title, claimed back-to-back Copa America trophies in 2021 and 2024, and led the side to this year’s World Cup final. He also made history by winning the prestigious Yashin Trophy, awarded annually to the world’s best goalkeeper, at both the 2023 and 2024 Ballon d’Or ceremonies, becoming one of only a handful of players to win the award in consecutive years.

    Across his six seasons with Aston Villa, Martínez made 256 first-team appearances for the club and helped lift the Europa League trophy in May this year. Reaffirming his commitment to his new side, Martínez emphasized his relentless approach to the game. “I’m all passion and I play with my heart,” he said. “I will give 100 per cent every game, every training session to make the club, my teammates and the supporters proud.”

    A product of the youth academy at Argentine top-flight side Independiente, Martínez moved to Europe for the first time in 2010, joining Arsenal at just 17 years old. After several loan spells across English lower divisions to gain first-team experience, he worked his way into the Gunners’ starting lineup for the second half of the 2019-20 campaign, starting the final 11 matches of the season and helping the club win the FA Cup that year. That breakthrough performance paved the way for his eventual move to Aston Villa, where he developed into one of the best goalkeepers in the Premier League.