Global Pulse

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  • Trump storms out of tense, rain-plagued NBC interview

    Trump storms out of tense, rain-plagued NBC interview

    In a chaotic, weather-disrupted interview filmed on a Wisconsin farm on June 5, 2026, during US President Donald Trump’s visit for a rural economy roundtable, Trump abruptly walked out mid-conversation after host Kristen Welker of *Meet the Press* pressed him to back up his long-debunked false claims of election fraud. The outdoor interview, set against a backdrop of farm tractors and hay bales, was repeatedly interrupted from the start by severe thunderstorms. Torrential rain hammered the structure’s roof, creating deafening audio disruptions that forced multiple pauses. When Welker asked if the crew should halt recording to wait out the storm, Trump insisted on continuing, saying, “No. People will understand — we’re on a farm.”

    After working through the weather issues, the conversation shifted to Trump’s strategy around Iran and his past campaign promises to keep the United States out of endless foreign conflicts. Pushed on his approach, Trump pushed back against Welker’s questioning, rejecting his earlier pledge to avoid new wars. “First of all, I didn’t guarantee no war. Why would I have built the strongest military in the world?” he said, before labeling Welker a “big liberal, a big progressive.” When Welker clarified she was only doing her job as a journalist, Trump added that his current actions in the region did not amount to another endless conflict: “I don’t like these endless wars. This is not an endless war. We’ve been doing this for three months.”

    Tensions flared again when the discussion turned to Trump’s newly proposed “weaponization fund” — a taxpayer-funded program that would compensate individuals he claims were wrongfully prosecuted under the previous Biden administration. Speaking angrily, Trump lashed out at the press and his predecessor: “I love the idea because people like you, the fake dirty press, the crooked press, people like stupid Biden … they destroyed people. They sent people to jail who did nothing wrong.” When Welker pushed back, noting there was no evidence to support his claims, the conversation devolved further.

    It was at this point that Trump doubled down on his repeated false assertions that the 2020 presidential election was rigged, adding that last week’s California primary was also stolen. When Welker held her ground and repeatedly asked him to produce evidence to back up these claims, Trump erupted. “You are either crooked or you’re stupid,” he told the host, before standing up and storming out of the frame, ending the interview early as Welker attempted to get him to stay.

    In on-air remarks Sunday when the interview was broadcast, Welker told viewers that she had spoken with Trump the day after the confrontation to address the weather disruptions that had complicated the recording, and that Trump had agreed to reschedule a full interview with NBC at a later date.

  • Iran fans dismayed by team’s World Cup visa quarrel

    Iran fans dismayed by team’s World Cup visa quarrel

    As the 2026 FIFA World Cup co-hosted by the United States, Mexico and Canada approaches, Iran’s national men’s football team, commonly known as Team Melli, has touched down in Tijuana, Mexico — their pre-tournament training base ahead of three group-stage matches to be held across the U.S. While a small but passionate group of Iranian supporters gathered at the crack of dawn Sunday to welcome the squad, the joyful occasion was overshadowed by a contentious visa controversy that has left the Iranian football community frustrated and disappointed.

    Among the cheering crowd at Tijuana’s airport was Sadegh Galavi, a 30-something mechanic and long-time Tijuana resident who lives just a short distance from the U.S. border. Galavi rose before sunrise to greet the team when their flight landed at 5 a.m., wearing the iconic Iranian national team white jersey trimmed with green and red. For him, showing up to welcome the squad was a non-negotiable gesture of national pride. “My national team is coming to my city, and being here is a small thing I can do just to welcome them,” he told AFP. His excitement quickly shifted to criticism, however, over the visa denials that have disrupted the team’s delegation.

    In total, roughly 15 accompanying Iranian delegation members were denied U.S. visas required to enter the country for the tournament. That list includes the head of the Iranian Football Federation, Mehdi Taj, who previously held a role in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — an organization Washington has designated as a terrorist group. While all 26 players successfully received the necessary visas to compete in their group matches against New Zealand, Belgium and Egypt scheduled for Los Angeles and Seattle, the denial of entry for top officials has deepened anger over the entanglement of politics and sports at the world’s biggest football event. “It makes no sense to me. Sport is supposed to be a symbol of peace, so when you mix politics and sports, it doesn’t work,” Galavi said.

    This visa row is only the latest in a string of off-field disruptions that have plagued Iran’s World Cup preparation. The unprecedented situation stems from the ongoing open conflict between Iran and the United States, which began with joint Israeli-American strikes on Iran in late February. Never before has a World Cup participant been actively at war with one of the tournament’s host nations, leaving Iran’s participation in doubt for months amid global diplomatic uncertainty. It was only after repeated insistence from FIFA that Iran ultimately confirmed its team would compete, with the governing body prioritizing the right of athletes to participate on sport’s biggest stage.

    Even after confirmation of participation, further changes came two weeks ago, when rising geopolitical tensions forced the Iranian Football Federation to scrap its original plan to base the team in Tucson, Arizona. Instead, the squad relocated its training base to Tijuana, a decision that fans and officials say offers greater safety and stability for the players ahead of the tournament. Tight security arrangements have already been put in place to protect the team: a large convoy of heavily armed Mexican police and military escorted the squad from the airport, and increased security measures have been deployed around the team’s hotel and Estadio Caliente, the venue where Iran will hold its public training sessions.

    For Iranian supporters, the string of setbacks has done little to dim their enthusiasm for Team Melli, which is still chasing its first ever berth in the World Cup knockout stage. Sina Moghadam, an Iranian-American retired self-described patriot who traveled from San Diego, California just across the border to welcome the team, said off-field adversity would only strengthen the squad’s resolve. “Iran’s history goes back thousands of years. Things like this only make us stronger; they won’t destabilize the team,” he said, holding an enormous Iranian flag. Moghadam even said he hopes Iran advances far enough to face the U.S. in the knockout stage, calling for his national team to pull off an iconic victory against the host nation. “I hope they’re going to kick the US team’s ass,” he laughed as the players’ bus pulled away from the airport.

    The new base in Tijuana has offered some comfort to fans concerned for the team’s safety. Hossein Nikyar, a 40-something engineer who drove overnight from Los Angeles with his son to welcome the team, noted that the relocation to Mexico removes the risk of disruption from anti-government Iranian opposition groups concentrated in Southern California. “It’s safer for them to be here than in Los Angeles anyway, because many Iranians in LA are royalists who want to take down the government,” he explained. Nikyar already holds tickets to Iran’s matches in Los Angeles, but he echoed the widespread frustration over the visa dispute, calling out FIFA’s long-held stance that sports should remain separate from politics. “FIFA claims that there’s no politics in the World Cup, and it’s all about the football fair play. But in fact, we see that it’s not true,” he sighed.

    As Team Melli settles into its new training base in Tijuana, all eyes will be on whether the squad can overcome weeks of off-field chaos and political interference to deliver the breakthrough performance that Iranian football has waited decades to achieve.

  • World Cup by the numbers: 104 matches, 48 teams and 3 countries make this the largest ever

    World Cup by the numbers: 104 matches, 48 teams and 3 countries make this the largest ever

    The 2026 FIFA World Cup, set to kick off across North America, is poised to make history as the largest and most expansive edition of men’s soccer’s flagship tournament ever staged. Marking the first major format shift since 1998, this iteration has expanded the participating field from the long-standing 32 teams to 48, spread across three co-host nations: the United States, Canada and Mexico. Over a 39-day competition window, a record 104 matches will take place across 16 purpose-selected stadiums, redefining the scale of the global sporting event.

    This historic expansion has reshaped the tournament’s structure: the group stage now includes four additional groups, and a new 32-team knockout round has been added to the competition schedule. The 1998 World Cup marked the last expansion, which grew the field from 24 to 32 teams – a format that remained in place for seven consecutive tournaments. This 2026 edition is also only the second time the World Cup has been hosted by multiple countries, following the co-hosting arrangement between Japan and South Korea in 2002.

    The distribution of matches across the three North American nations reflects the host countries’ varying sizes and infrastructure. The United States will host the vast majority of fixtures, with 78 matches across 11 different host cities. The U.S. campaign opens on June 12 in the Los Angeles area, where the American men’s national team will face Paraguay. All knockout fixtures from the quarterfinals onward will take place on U.S. soil, with the World Cup final scheduled to be held at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. Both Mexico and Canada will each host 13 matches, including three knockout round fixtures apiece. Mexico’s tournament gets underway on June 11 in Mexico City, with the host nation facing South Africa in the competition’s opening match, while Canada kicks off its campaign on June 12 in Toronto against Bosnia-Herzegovina.

    Beyond the tournament structure, a wealth of new historic milestones and record-breaking stats will define this 2026 edition. Overall, 1,248 players from 48 national rosters will take the pitch, drawn from 449 domestic clubs across 71 nations. Of that group, just 357 have prior World Cup experience, meaning 891 players will make their World Cup debuts this year. When sorted by club league, England’s Premier League leads all competitions with 200 of its players featuring on national rosters, followed by Germany’s Bundesliga with 109, and Ligue 1 (France) and La Liga (Spain) tied at 86 apiece. Major League Soccer (MLS) will set a new participation record, with 44 active MLS players set to compete, while 103 total rostered players have prior experience in the North American league. At the club level, England’s Manchester City tops the rankings, sending a record 19 players to the tournament, followed by Bayern Munich (18), Paris Saint-Germain and Arsenal (16 each), and Barcelona (15).

    Several of the sport’s biggest global legends are set to add to their already historic World Cup legacies. Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo enters the tournament with 226 international caps – more than any other men’s player in history – and will join Argentina’s Lionel Messi as only the second player to compete in six different World Cups. Ronaldo already holds the unique record of scoring in five separate World Cup tournaments, with eight career goals across 22 matches. Messi holds the record for the most career World Cup appearances (26), and needs just two more caps to join the elite club of men’s players with 200 or more international appearances, a group that already includes Kuwait’s Bader Al-Mutawa. Mexico’s iconic goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa will also be named to a sixth World Cup roster, though he did not feature in matches during the 2006 and 2010 tournaments.

    The all-time World Cup goal scoring record, held by Germany’s Miroslav Klose at 16 career goals, is under threat this year. Messi enters the 2026 tournament with 13 career World Cup goals, trailing only Klose, Brazil’s Ronaldo (15) and Gerd Müller (14). France’s star forward Kylian Mbappé is also well within striking distance, having already notched 12 goals across the 2018 and 2022 tournaments.

    Looking at historical team context, only eight nations in the 96-year history of the World Cup have ever lifted the trophy, and just six of those have won multiple titles. Brazil leads all countries with five championships, and the only first-time winners in the last 11 editions have been France (1998) and Spain (2010). Only two nations have ever successfully defended their World Cup title: Brazil won back-to-back trophies in 1958 and 1962, and Italy repeated as champions in 1934 and 1938. Three other defending champions have reached the final, most recently France in 2022, which fell to Argentina. Six defending champions have failed to advance out of the group stage, including three of the last four tournaments. France, which won in 2018 and reached the final in 2022, will attempt to become just the third nation in history to reach three consecutive World Cup finals, a feat only previously achieved by West Germany (1982, 1986, 1990) and Brazil (1994, 1998, 2002).

    Brazil also holds another unbroken record: it is the only nation to have qualified for every World Cup since the inaugural tournament in 1930, spanning 23 editions total. The Brazilians also lead all competitors in total World Cup wins (76), total goals scored (237), and overall goal differential (+129). Germany ranks second in all three categories, with 21 appearances, 232 goals and a +102 goal differential, counting 10 tournament appearances as West Germany prior to reunification. This year, four nations will make their World Cup debuts: Cape Verde, Curaçao, Jordan and Uzbekistan. Their participation pushes the all-time total of nations that have competed in the World Cup to 84.

    In terms of historical struggling, Egypt enters the 2026 tournament having played seven World Cup matches without ever recording a win, holding a 0-5-2 all-time record. The North African side will get a chance to break that drought when they face Belgium on June 15. The only nation with more winless World Cup matches is Honduras, which failed to qualify for the 2026 tournament.

    For overall goal scoring, the 22 prior World Cups have combined for 2,720 goals across 964 matches. With 40 additional matches added in this expanded format, the single-tournament goal record of 172, set at the 2022 Qatar World Cup, is almost certain to be broken. However, the 1954 tournament’s record of 5.38 combined goals per game is expected to remain intact. The 2026 tournament also boasts the largest age gap between its oldest and youngest player in history, spanning more than 25 years. Scotland’s goalkeeper Craig Gordon will be 43 years and 162 days old on tournament opening day, while Mexico’s teen prospect Gilbert Mora will be just 17 years and 240 days old.

  • A 7.8 magnitude earthquake rocks the southern Philippines, causing some damage and a tsunami warning

    A 7.8 magnitude earthquake rocks the southern Philippines, causing some damage and a tsunami warning

    In the early hours of Monday, a powerful 7.8-magnitude earthquake rocked parts of the southern Philippines, leaving infrastructure damaged, cutting power supplies, and prompting urgent tsunami warnings for coastal zones across multiple regional nations. The seismic event has put emergency response teams on high alert, though no confirmed fatalities or injuries have been released in the immediate aftermath.

    According to data from the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS), the earthquake’s epicenter was located 13 kilometers southwest of General Santos, a major coastal commercial hub on the island of Mindanao that is home to more than 700,000 residents and renowned for its large-scale tuna processing industry. The agency recorded the quake hitting at 7:37 a.m. local time at a depth of 10 kilometers. The U.S. Geological Survey offered a slightly different depth measurement of 55 kilometers, a common discrepancy between agencies in the immediate hours following large seismic events. In the wake of the initial quake, aftershocks reaching as high as magnitude 6.5 were recorded by the U.S. body.

    Widespread damage has already been reported in General Santos, including the partial collapse of a four-story small commercial building that housed a provincial branch of Manila-based DZRH radio station. Station representatives confirmed that all on-site staff fled to the ground floor safely and escaped without injury, but uncertainty remains over whether any other people were trapped in the rubble, as the quake struck before standard office hours when most workers had not yet arrived.

    Immediately following the seismic event, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) issued a series of regional alerts. The center warned that tsunami waves as high as 3 meters could impact sections of the Philippine coastline, while surges of up to 1 meter were possible for coastal areas of Indonesia and Malaysia. Smaller, non-destructive sea level changes were flagged for Taiwan, Japan, Guam, Papua New Guinea, and multiple small island nations and territories across the western Pacific. The PTWC explicitly confirmed that Hawaii faced no tsunami threat from the quake. As of Tuesday local time, Indonesia’s meteorological agencies have already recorded minor tsunami surges of up to 18 centimeters along coastlines in North Sulawesi and North Maluku provinces, where residents also reported feeling clear tremors from the main quake.

    Teresito Bacolcol, head of PHIVOLCS, issued an urgent advisory for at-risk coastal populations, urging residents to evacuate immediately to elevated inland areas or higher ground to avoid potential tsunami inundation.

    This seismic event underscores the constant natural hazard risk the Philippines faces as a nation positioned along the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, an extensive arc of active seismic faults that circles the Pacific Basin. The archipelagic nation counts among the world’s most disaster-prone countries, regularly experiencing major earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, and is hit by an average of 20 typhoons and tropical storms each year.

  • Venezuela’s Delcy Rodriguez to visit Turkey for talks with Erdogan

    Venezuela’s Delcy Rodriguez to visit Turkey for talks with Erdogan

    Multiple insiders briefed on the planned itinerary have confirmed to independent outlet Middle East Eye that Venezuela’s interim president Delcy Rodriguez will embark on an official visit to Turkey this coming Monday, marking a key step in the Latin American nation’s new outreach to global partners following recent political shifts.

    Sources familiar with the schedule note that the trip will include a high-stakes meeting between Rodriguez and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, scheduled to take place in Istanbul. The visit comes as an extension of Rodriguez’s ongoing regional and global tour, which has already included a week-long stop in India. During her time in New Delhi, she held extensive talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration on expanding bilateral cooperation in energy, trade and cross-border investment, according to prior updates from the trip.

    Turkey and Venezuela have shared deep political and economic bonds for nearly a decade, a relationship rooted in mutual diplomatic support. For years, Erdogan maintained a close working relationship with former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who was removed from power and taken into US custody earlier this year. Maduro is currently being held at a detention facility in New York as he faces ongoing federal criminal charges. Following Maduro’s ouster, Rodriguez assumed the interim presidency with the formal backing of US President Donald Trump, and has overseen a steady expansion of American economic interests in Venezuela, including expanded operations for US oil giant Chevron.

    The bilateral relationship between Ankara and Caracas was built on early reciprocal support. In 2016, right after a failed military coup attempt against Erdogan, Maduro was among the first global leaders to reach out and express solidarity—a gesture that laid the groundwork for years of growing cooperation. When the 2018 Venezuelan presidential election sparked controversy and the opposition-led National Assembly labeled Maduro an illegitimate leader in 2019, Erdogan publicly backed the then-president, telling him in a direct call: “Brother, you should stand firm. We are with you.”

    By 2023, bilateral trade between the two nations had climbed to nearly $1 billion, with heavy focus on the mining and gold sectors that hold major untapped potential in Venezuela. The two countries have already laid formal groundwork for expanded cooperation: in February 2024, their respective energy ministries signed two memorandums of understanding covering collaboration in oil, natural gas and mining. Later that year, Maduro confirmed that the pair had also agreed to a deal allowing Turkish firms to extract gold from fields in southern Venezuela. For years starting around 2019, Turkey imported large volumes of Venezuelan gold in exchange for exporting manufactured goods to the Latin American country, though the trade arrangement shrank over time after it drew scrutiny from US regulators.

    For years, widespread US sanctions imposed on Venezuela’s energy and mining sectors blocked further progress on these bilateral initiatives. But earlier this year, the Trump administration rolled back a portion of these restrictions, creating new openings for investment from both Turkish public and private entities in Venezuela’s key commodity sectors.

    Insiders told MEE that Rodriguez’s upcoming visit is rooted in a recognition of Turkey’s long-standing diplomatic support for Venezuela across successive administrations, and Caracas is open to deepening bilateral trade and investment through new joint projects. Sources add that Ankara is expected to prioritize discussions around expanding access to Venezuela’s lucrative oil and gold reserves during the talks. While Rodriguez’s administration has prioritized expanding US economic access, the upcoming meeting signals that Venezuela’s new government also aims to cultivate diversified economic partnerships with other global powers.

  • Asia-Pacific airline per-passenger profit tipped to fall 35 per cent

    Asia-Pacific airline per-passenger profit tipped to fall 35 per cent

    The global airline industry is facing unprecedented financial pressure in 2026, with the International Air Transport Association (IATA) issuing a stark warning that per-passenger profits for Asia-Pacific carriers could plummet by as much as 35.9% this year, driven by skyrocketing jet fuel prices and depreciating regional currencies against the U.S. dollar.

    In its latest analysis released overnight Australian time from IATA’s annual general meeting held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the industry trade group projects that average profit per passenger across the Asia-Pacific region will fall from US$5.30 recorded in 2025 to just US$3.40 in 2026. The net profit margin for regional carriers is also expected to slump by 40% year-over-year. Globally, the downturn is equally severe: IATA forecasts total industry profits will halve from US$45 billion in 2025 to US$23 billion in 2026, with overall margins shrinking from 4.2% to 2%.

    “It is a tough year for all airlines, but especially for those whose balance sheets have not yet recovered from Covid-19,” IATA Director General Willie Walsh told attendees on Sunday local time. Walsh emphasized that even the reduced projected profit figure demonstrates a degree of industry resilience, but warned the slim margin leaves almost no room for unexpected cost increases. “It won’t even buy you a hot dog at most of the FIFA World Cup venues, and it does not leave much of a buffer, should other costs or taxes start rising,” he said.

    The root of the current crisis traces back to escalating conflict-related disruptions in the Middle East, which have pushed global jet fuel prices up 70% year-to-date. By mid-April 2026, regional jet fuel prices had climbed to 125% above pre-conflict levels, prompting major Australian carriers Qantas and Virgin Australia to take immediate defensive action: both have raised ticket prices and cut flight capacity to offset rising energy costs.

    Australia’s flag carrier Qantas confirmed to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) in mid-April that it had restructured its route network, cutting domestic flight capacity by 5% and reallocating aircraft from U.S. and domestic services to meet strong demand for travel to Europe. The shift comes as both airlines and passengers avoid travel through the volatile Middle East. So far in 2026, Qantas’ share price has fallen 11.5%, though it has staged an 8.6% rebound over the past 30 days.

    Virgin Australia similarly announced mid-April that it had implemented fare hikes and capacity cuts after jet fuel costs doubled between March and April 2026. The carrier noted that its fuel suppliers have guaranteed near-term supply to support operations through to May 2026. Virgin’s share price has dropped 25.4% year-to-date, matching Qantas’ recent rebound trend with a 14.5% gain over the past month. Both major Australian airlines declined to provide additional comment beyond their existing public disclosures when contacted by NewsWire.

    IATA notes that the Asia-Pacific region faces amplified pressure compared to other global markets, due to its heavy reliance on crude oil imports from the Persian Gulf, which has strained regional refinery operations. Further cost increases have been driven by the depreciation of multiple Asian currencies against the U.S. dollar, since jet fuel and other major aviation expenses are dollar-denominated, pushing up local currency costs for carriers. Walsh did acknowledge one small bright spot for some regional operators: “Some Asia-Pacific carriers are benefiting from shifting traffic flows linked to the Middle East conflict, particularly on Europe-Asia routes.”

    To mitigate near-term supply risks for Australian airlines, the Australian government secured a 100 million-litre jet fuel shipment from China last month that is scheduled to arrive in early June.

  • ‘No dead ends’: What the Dutch can teach us about tackling youth unemployment

    ‘No dead ends’: What the Dutch can teach us about tackling youth unemployment

    A landmark recent report has laid bare a growing crisis across the United Kingdom: nearly one in eight 16 to 24-year-olds are classified as NEET – not in education, employment, or training – and that figure is projected to climb to one in six within five years without urgent systemic reform. That warning, delivered by former UK Health Secretary Alan Milburn, the report’s lead author, has opened a urgent national conversation: what structural changes can Britain make to reverse this worrying trend, and could the Netherlands – which boasts one of the world’s lowest NEET rates – hold the blueprint for success?

    The Netherlands’ youth education and employment policy is built around one simple, foundational philosophy: “no dead ends”. Every stage of a young person’s academic and professional journey is intentionally designed to lead to a next step, rather than leaving vulnerable young people adrift without support or options. This core principle shapes every layer of the nation’s system, starting with compulsory education: all children between 5 and 16 must attend school, and they are required to stay in education or training until they earn a recognized qualification or turn 18, regardless of their path.

    A central policy driving the Netherlands’ success is the kwalificatieplicht, or mandatory qualification requirement, which has cut national school dropout rates dramatically. At around age 12, Dutch students are sorted into one of three secondary education tracks based on primary school performance and teacher input: the practical VMBO track that feeds directly into vocational training, the mid-tier HAVO that prepares students for applied science universities, and the academic VWO track for students bound for traditional research universities. While early streaming remains controversial, with critics arguing it can harm vulnerable students’ confidence and limit social mobility, the system is built to accommodate flexible switches between tracks, eliminating permanent dead ends for young people who change their goals or outgrow their initial placement.

    Compare this framework to the fragmented system across the UK. While all young people can leave school at 16, rules for post-16 participation vary drastically by nation. England requires young people to stay in education or training until 18, whether through full-time study, an apprenticeship, or part-time learning alongside work. Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland have no equivalent legal mandate, even as public bodies encourage continued participation. This uneven structure leaves gaps that can push disconnected young people into NEET status.

    The human impact of the Dutch “no dead ends” model is clear in the experience of Amelie, a 20-year-old trainee teaching assistant from The Hague. Assigned to the vocational VMBO track at age 10, Amelie initially saw her confidence shaken by the stigma attached to non-academic paths. By age 12, when she began exploring hands-on training options, she regained optimism, but still hit a setback when she struggled to find an internship and left her fashion course at 17. After six months of working and traveling, she faced a crossroads: if she had lived in the UK, dropping out of education entirely would have been a legal option, and she might have taken it. But under Dutch law, she could not leave education without a qualifying credential, so she was pushed to find a new path.

    Amelie ultimately enrolled in the beroepsbegeleidende leerweg, the Dutch vocational training pathway that lets students over 16 combine part-time coursework – just one to two days per week – with paid part-time work in their chosen field. The Dutch system integrates employers deeply: businesses can partner with colleges to create custom training programs tailored to their staffing needs, and vocational graduates in high-demand trades often find multiple job offers waiting for them upon completion. Asja van der Helm, a secondary school teacher in The Hague, explains that the system frames skilled trades as valuable, aspirational careers: with electricians, carpenters, and technicians earning strong salaries and facing constant labor demand, young people can see clear, rewarding paths forward rather than viewing vocational training as a consolation prize.

    For young people who struggle to fit into formal pathways, the Netherlands has built a layered, proactive safety net to prevent disengagement. State funding allocated to schools for student health and well-being can be used to partner with specialist external organizations that support at-risk youth. One such group is Mooi Jong, a Hague-based non-profit that works with students referred by schools who face a high risk of dropping out and becoming NEET. Founder Alexander Koppelle describes the system as a web: every potential exit point for a struggling young person has a backup intervention, another organization, and another chance to stay engaged. Schools track every absence, intervene early for repeated lateness, and activate support before a young person drops out entirely. Even students who need to step back for mental health reasons remain connected: they are classified as thuis zitters (home-stayers), and schools retain their funding to pay for external support while they wait for specialized care. Unjustified truancy triggers progressive sanctions, from fines to community service, but the system prioritizes re-engagement over punishment.

    Migration to the Netherlands from low-opportunity regions further highlights the model’s strengths. Destiny, who moved to the Netherlands from the Caribbean island of Bonaire, found a clear path through a beauty therapy course, which turned an internship into paid full-time work at a local salon. Her seamless transition from education to full-time work is exactly what Dutch policymakers aim to achieve: keeping young people connected to opportunity before they become disconnected from the workforce entirely. For unemployed young people who do fall out of education, the government operates a one-stop support service through the Dutch Employee Insurance Agency (UWV), which administers benefits, connects job seekers with employers, and provides tailored guidance to help young people return to work or training.

    Even with these successful structures, the Dutch model is not perfect: youth unemployment has begun to rise in recent years, and policymakers continue to tweak the system to address emerging gaps. Still, national data tells a clear story: just 4.9% of 18 to 24-year-olds in the Netherlands are NEET, compared to 15.1% in the UK. That gap has led Milburn and other experts to argue that British policymakers have much to learn from the Dutch approach. For Amelie, who now trains to become a teaching assistant to support other young people facing the same challenges she overcame, the model’s greatest strength is its flexibility and its refusal to write off any young person. “Without the option to change path along the way, I would have dropped out altogether,” she says. For the UK, that lesson could be the key to reversing its growing NEET crisis.

  • Spain’s visitor numbers hit new highs as tourists avoid Middle East

    Spain’s visitor numbers hit new highs as tourists avoid Middle East

    Standing on a sun-drenched hotel rooftop in Benidorm, Fede Fuster, president of the city’s local tourism association, gazes out over a skyline of high-rises stretching toward the iconic sweeping Mediterranean coastline. A third-generation tourism industry leader – his family was among the first to build a hotel here in the 1950s – Fuster says of the resort, “With all its virtues and its defects this is a place we feel proud of. It’s a place of opportunities.”

    Benidorm, a permanent home to just 77,000 residents, regularly swells to five times that population at the peak of summer, making it one of Spain’s most valuable coastal tourism hubs. Like destinations across the country, it has staged a remarkable comeback since the Covid-19 pandemic left resorts empty and the national tourism industry at a complete standstill. Since borders reopened, annual international visitor arrivals have broken records year after year, hitting 97 million in 2025. Today, Spain ranks as the world’s second most popular tourist destination, trailing only France, and industry leaders are gearing up for an even stronger 2026.

    Fuster is bullish on the coming year, predicting Spain will hit the historic milestone of 100 million international visitors and claim the top global ranking before long. What was originally projected to be a year of modest growth has been boosted by an unexpected tailwind: escalating geopolitical tensions between the U.S.-Israeli coalition and Iran have driven holidaymakers away from traditional Middle Eastern and Eastern Mediterranean destinations, turning Spain into a safe alternative. Fuster notes that this pattern is not new – demand for Spanish holidays jumped during the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings – though he emphasizes he would rather compete on equal footing than gain market share from global instability.

    Francisco Femenia-Serra, a geography lecturer at Madrid’s Complutense University, explains that the safety dividend reshapes tourist flows across the region. “In these moments of crisis, of military strikes or wars, the bookings always increase,” he says, adding that price-sensitive travelers who would normally visit lower-cost destinations like Turkey or Egypt are now diverting to Spain. Official national visitor data backs this up: Spain welcomed 9.1 million international travelers in April 2026, a new all-time high for the month, representing a 5.2% increase (450,000 additional visitors) over April 2025. By contrast, Dubai International Airport reported a 66% drop in passenger numbers in March 2026, as flight cancellations and canceled bookings hammered the emirate’s travel sector in the wake of escalating tensions.

    For Spain’s national economy, the tourism boom could not come at a better time: the sector directly contributes 13% of national GDP, and has driven overall economic growth that has outpaced major European peers including France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom in recent years. But despite the record-breaking numbers, two major threats loom on the horizon that could undermine the industry’s momentum. The first is a global risk: rising fuel costs that could push up airfares and discourage Europeans from taking international holidays. The second is a growing domestic crisis: rising public anger among local residents over the negative impacts of mass tourism on daily life.

    Public opinion has shifted dramatically over the past decade. “Tourism was always accepted as a positive economic sector for Spain,” says Femenia-Serra. “That changed from 2016, 2017, with the label of over-tourism being put on some cities, like Barcelona. And now, most young Spaniards under 45 have a different image of tourism. They see it as a sector that obviously has a positive impact but also some negative outcomes in their lives.”

    Since 2024, summer protests against excessive visitor numbers have spread across popular tourist destinations, from Mediterranean coastal hubs to the Balearic and Canary Islands. A 2024 Europe-wide YouGov poll found that 28% of Spaniards hold a negative view of foreign tourism – the highest share of any European country by a wide margin – and two-thirds of respondents sympathized with anti-over-tourism protests.

    Local grievances center on three core issues: chronic congestion in city centers, increased environmental strain, and most critically, the role of short-term tourist accommodation in worsening Spain’s ongoing housing affordability crisis. In recent weeks, a new wave of protests has targeted soaring residential rents, with tourism repeatedly singled out as a key driver of the problem.

    In a central Valencia bookshop, members of the local tenants’ union Sindicat de Llogateres gather regularly to help local residents navigate rental disputes. Many attendees have faced sharp rent hikes when their contracts come up for renewal, as landlords increasingly pivot to higher-yield short-term tourist stays. “When it comes to renewing rental contracts, the owners of properties no longer think about setting rents according to local salaries, but rather the salaries of people visiting from abroad, which might be three or four times higher,” says union representative Jordi Vila. “So local people end up getting pushed out of their homes.”

    Vila points to Barcelona as the clearest example of this displacement, describing the city’s historic center as “a kind of theme park” where the proliferation of short-term tourist rentals has pushed long-term residents out to suburban areas. Even in smaller, northern destinations like Asturias, anger has boiled over into direct action: graffiti targeting holiday rental properties has appeared in recent days, bearing the slogan “Your business, our ruin.”

    Both national and local governments have moved to address public anger, implementing new rules to curb the growth of unregulated short-term accommodation. In 2025, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s left-wing coalition government warned that “there are too many Airbnbs and not enough homes,” and later fined the short-term rental platform €65 million ($75.5 million) for advertising unlicensed properties. Local authorities have gone further: many city councils have halted the issuance of new permits for tourist apartments, and Barcelona has announced plans to revoke licenses for all 10,000 of its existing short-term rental units by 2028, while doubling the city’s tourist tax to €8 for short-stay cruise ship visitors.

    While tenant activists and protest groups have welcomed these measures, they say far more action is needed to protect local communities. But the tourism industry has pushed back against aggressive regulation. Exceltur, Spain’s leading national tourism industry association, has called for “the reparation of the links between the tourism sector and local residents,” warning that overly strict rules will harm both jobs and economic growth. The short-term rental sector has cited a PwC analysis of Barcelona’s license revocation plan, which warns the policy could erode the city’s tourism competitiveness and lead to the loss of thousands of local jobs.

    Femenia-Serra notes that policymakers are still struggling to find a balanced solution that addresses local grievances without damaging the critical tourism economy. “We have measures that try to alleviate the impact that tourism has and that try to distribute tourists in cities in a different way,” he says. “But we still haven’t seen a single measure that is effective in reducing the number of tourists.”

    Back in Benidorm, as Fuster prepares for what is projected to be another record-breaking summer, he acknowledges the legitimacy of local discontent and says the industry must adapt to retain social license. “We say we are the industry of happiness,” he says. “But we also have to realise that we impact the normal life of citizens. The way we welcome people and we care about them and our happiness, the way we live, I think that’s something the tourist really appreciates – that’s the key. That’s why we have to work a lot in these places, mostly in cities, where there is a feeling of not welcoming tourists. It’s very important for us because if we lose that, we’re dead.” To Fuster, making visitors feel welcome while respecting the needs of local communities is not just a social good – it is the foundation of the industry’s long-term survival.

  • ‘A World Cup for them not us’: Fans’ anger at US travel bans and visa restrictions

    ‘A World Cup for them not us’: Fans’ anger at US travel bans and visa restrictions

    The 2026 FIFA World Cup, the first iteration of the expanded 48-team tournament, is just weeks away, with 78 of its 104 matches including the final hosted across U.S. cities. But for thousands of passionate fans from qualified nations across Africa, the Middle East, and beyond, the dream of cheering on their national teams inside a World Cup stadium remains out of reach, blocked by a web of restrictive U.S. visa policies, security-related service suspensions, and systemic barriers that have sparked widespread accusations of discrimination.

    Iraqi football supporter Abdulla Adnan embodied this heartbreak long before the first kickoff. When Iraq secured only its second World Cup qualification in history in March 2026, the first since 1986, Adnan jumped at the once-in-a-generation opportunity. He immediately purchased tickets for Iraq’s group stage matches against Norway in Boston and France in Philadelphia, already imagining the roar of the crowd and the rush of seeing his national team compete on soccer’s biggest stage. “To go to a match, a stadium, a crowd, cheering, and see my team – that is worth the world to me,” Adnan said. “It’s a feeling that no other feeling can compare to.”

    But what seemed like a done deal quickly unraveled when it came to securing a U.S. travel visa. Unexpectedly, Iraq is not included in the Trump administration’s current travel ban list, so Adnan’s barrier came from another source: in the wake of heightened regional tensions following the outbreak of the US-Israel conflict with Iran, the U.S. suspended routine consular visa services across Iraq over security concerns. Since all tourist visa applicants are required to complete an in-person interview, there is no way for Iraqi fans to apply for a visa within their own country.

    Adnan’s solution? He spent hundreds of dollars traveling to neighboring Jordan to apply at the U.S. embassy in Amman. When he arrived for his scheduled appointment, however, consular staff turned him away immediately, informing him that non-Jordanian citizens could not process visa applications at that post. He considered traveling to Turkey to apply, but learned the wait for an interview could stretch to two weeks, a timeline he could not accommodate due to work and family commitments. In total, Adnan spent roughly $1,800 on match tickets and travel to Jordan, all for a visa application he never got to submit. He has since abandoned his dream of attending the tournament.

    Adnan is far from alone in his struggle. A new analysis of travel and visa data from BBC World Service has found that fans from more than a quarter of the 48 qualified World Cup nations face outright travel bans, sharply tightened entry restrictions, or disproportionately high visa rejection rates that have put attendance out of reach for most supporters.

    For fans from four qualified nations – Haiti, Iran, Senegal, and Ivory Coast – barriers stem directly from the Trump administration’s entry bans and enhanced visa restrictions, which bar citizens of these countries from accessing the B1/B2 visitor visas U.S. authorities recommend for World Cup fans. Strict immigration controls and a crackdown on undocumented migration were a central plank of Trump’s 2024 re-election campaign, and administration officials defend the rigorous system as a necessary measure to manage cross-border population flows and national security risks.

    But fans and fan association leaders say the rules amount to open racial and geographic segregation. Julien Kouadio Adonis, a leader of Ivory Coast’s official fan association the National Committee for the Support of the Elephants, says his group scrapped all plans to send a delegation of supporters to the tournament this year after reviewing the visa rules. “It’s a form of segregation that doesn’t dare speak its name, but the proof is there,” Adonis said. “No European country has faced this kind of restriction. Why Africa?”

    Adonis added that a host nation that refuses to welcome supporters from all qualified teams does not deserve to host the world’s biggest sporting event. “Football is a spectacle and a spectacle needs people watching,” he noted.

    Systemic inequities are baked into the U.S. visa waiver program, which grants pre-approved, visa-free entry to citizens of 42 mostly wealthy nations, none of which are located in Africa. For fans from visa-required countries, the recommended B1/B2 tourist visa costs $185 per applicant, requires an in-person interview, and demands that applicants prove they will depart the U.S. after the tournament and can cover all travel costs.

    In a partial concession to fan outcry, the U.S. announced in May that it would drop the requirement for cash deposits of up to $15,000 for fans from five qualifying African nations – Algeria, Cape Verde, Ivory Coast, Senegal, and Tunisia – so long as they hold valid match tickets. Even with that change, however, fans face overwhelming odds of rejection.

    Senegalese fan Aliou Ngom, who attended the 2018 World Cup in Russia and the 2022 tournament in Qatar, has already decided not to even apply for a visa. For Ngom, one of the greatest strengths of the World Cup is its ability to bring global cultures together inside stadiums, but he sees little point in wasting time and money on an application he expects to be rejected, following a pattern of visa denials that led to the cancellation of a U.S. training camp for Senegal’s women’s national basketball team last year.

    BBC analysis of U.S. State Department data from October 2024 to September 2025 found that citizens of 11 qualified nations face an overall B1/B2 visa rejection rate higher than 40% – well above the global average of 34% for all visitor visa applicants. The 11 countries include Ecuador, Egypt, Haiti, Algeria, Uzbekistan, Cape Verde, Jordan, Iran, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, and Senegal.

    These high rejection rates put fans in an impossible position: buy tickets in advance for hundreds or thousands of dollars, risking total loss if their visa is denied, or wait for visa approval and risk missing out on tickets altogether. FIFA does allow ticket holders to resell unused tickets on its official platform for a small fee, and launched the FIFA Pass system to prioritize ticket holders for earlier visa interview slots. Immigration attorney Celine Atallah, who runs a practice near Boston, called FIFA Pass a positive step to streamline scheduling, but noted it does nothing to improve the odds of a visa being approved.

    “The visa system is the invisible gatekeeper of the World Cup,” Atallah said. “Fifa can sell a ticket, but the US government decides who gets a visa, and CBP [Customs and Border Protection] decides who actually enters.” Even with an approved visa, border officials retain the authority to deny entry to any traveler on arrival.

    For Jordan, which qualified for its first ever World Cup in June 2025 after beating Oman in qualifying, 57% of all U.S. visa applications were rejected in the 12 months ending September 2025 – one of the highest rejection rates of any qualifying nation. Abu Kass, head of Jordan’s national football fan association, says he has yet to hear of a single Jordan-based fan who has successfully obtained a U.S. visa for the tournament. Kass himself brought more than 42 supporting documents to his visa interview in Amman, only to have his application rejected without explanation – U.S. authorities do not typically provide reasons for visa refusals.

    “This World Cup is not ours,” Kass said. “It’s not for Arabs this World Cup, it’s for them. If the head of the fan association was refused, who will be accepted?”

    In a statement to the BBC, a State Department spokesman said the administration was “prepared to welcome visitors from around the globe for the largest and greatest Fifa World Cup in history.” The spokesman noted that most overseas fans already do not need visas to enter the U.S., either because they are from visa-waiver countries, Canadian citizens, or already hold valid U.S. visas. “We will take the time necessary to ensure an applicant does not pose a risk to the safety and security of the United States,” the statement said, adding that all applications are adjudicated on a case-by-case basis after rigorous security vetting.

    U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials have emphasized ongoing concerns over visa overstays, pointing to more than 538,000 overstay events between October 2023 and September 2024. Prior to the Trump administration’s expanded crackdown on undocumented migration, Pew Research Center estimated there were roughly 14 million undocumented immigrants residing in the U.S. in 2023.

    While the U.S. hosts the vast majority of 2026 World Cup matches, co-hosts Canada and Mexico face their own barriers for traveling fans. Canada has not enacted country-wide travel bans, but recently introduced entry restrictions for nations affected by the 2026 African Ebola outbreak, which includes qualified nation the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Canada also requires biometric scanning for all visa applicants, but has no in-country scanning facilities for two qualified nations: Iran and Cape Verde. Canada’s overall visa refusal rate hit 54% in 2025, and does not publish disaggregated data by country or visa type.

    Mexico, which does not publish official visa refusal data, requires all visa applicants to complete an in-person interview at an embassy or consulate. For eight qualified nations – Cape Verde, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Uzbekistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Tunisia, and Iraq – Mexico has no diplomatic mission, leaving fans with no domestic path to apply for a visa, mirroring the issues Iraqi fans face with U.S. consular services.

    For millions of passionate football fans who waited decades to see their nations qualify for the World Cup, the systemic barriers across the three host nations mean a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity has been lost before the tournament even begins.

  • One Nation did not have housing policy ‘written down’ at time of on-air bungle: Joyce

    One Nation did not have housing policy ‘written down’ at time of on-air bungle: Joyce

    Australia’s political landscape has been thrown into fresh chaos this week, as a stunning surge in polling for far-right party One Nation has been overshadowed by a series of embarrassing policy blunders that have raised serious questions about the party’s preparedness to govern. At the center of the controversy is veteran political figure Barnaby Joyce, who has conceded he made a major misstatement during a live television interview on One Nation’s proposed housing policy — an error he blames on the fact that the full details of the policy were never formally documented. The unforced error has sparked fierce criticism from the ruling Labor government and laid bare deep inconsistencies in how One Nation representatives communicate key policy proposals to voters.

    The drama unfolded on Thursday, when Joyce appeared on Sky News to outline One Nation’s plan to restrict property ownership by non-Australians. The policy, broadly framed to prioritize home access for Australian citizens, requires non-residents to sell any Australian properties they own within a two-year window. During the interview, Joyce incorrectly stated that permanent residents would be caught by the new rules. Only hours after the segment aired, he was forced to return to the same program to issue a hasty correction, clarifying that permanent residents would not be forced to sell their homes.

    One Nation leader Pauline Hanson later stepped in to lock in the clarified position, confirming the policy would only target foreign owners, specifically temporary visa holders. Even with Hanson’s intervention, however, confusion persisted: the following day, One Nation Senator Sean Bell was unable to answer basic follow-up questions about the policy during an interview with 2GB, including what enforcement measures would apply if a property was not sold within the mandated two-year period. When Bell repeatedly dodged the question, host Mark Levy cut the interview short, describing the exchange as a “trainwreck.”

    Days after the initial blunder, Joyce broke his silence on the controversy during an appearance on Seven’s *Sunrise*, where he made a major concession that has reignited debate over One Nation’s policy credibility. He admitted that at the time of his Sky News interview, the party had not formally drafted or written down the details of the housing policy. “I made a mistake because we didn’t have the policy written down, and I corrected it on the same news… and all of a sudden they’re saying One Nation is over,” Joyce said. He pushed back against critics, arguing that voter dissatisfaction with the current government, not a single interview misstep, is driving One Nation’s growing support. “People have changed, not because of an interview on Sky. People have changed because they don’t trust [the government] anymore, and their lives are not getting better,” he added. Labor Social Services Minister Tanya Plibersek quickly called out Joyce’s admission, pressing him: “So you just made it up? You didn’t have it written down?”

    The policy chaos comes as new polling data delivered a seismic shift in Australian federal voting intentions. The latest Newspoll conducted for *The Australian*, which surveyed 1,240 voters between the previous Monday and Thursday, recorded One Nation’s primary vote surging to 31 percent — putting the party one point ahead of the ruling Labor Party on 30 percent, and far ahead of the opposition Coalition, which recorded just 18 percent primary support. While Labor remains ahead of both One Nation and the Coalition on a two-party preferred basis, the primary vote result marks a historic high for Pauline Hanson’s far-right party and signals deep voter unrest with the established political order.

    Responding to the new polling, Plibersek acknowledged that Australian voters are hungry for major change, but argued that Labor is the only party capable of delivering meaningful reform. “We agree this country needs to be changed so that it’s fairer, so people get paid more, taxed less, they get the health and education services that they deserve,” she said. “We agree with all of that. That’s what we’re changing. One Nation is the party that’s opposing those changes.” As the fallout from the policy blunder continues, political observers are watching closely to see whether the confusion around the housing policy will erode One Nation’s newly gained support ahead of any future federal election.