Global Pulse

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  • Barcelona agree £65m deal to sign Rodri from Man City

    Barcelona agree £65m deal to sign Rodri from Man City

    One of the most high-profile transfer moves of the European summer window has moved toward completion, as Spanish champions Barcelona have struck an agreement to sign 2024 Ballon d’Or winner and Spain national team captain Rodri from Premier League giants Manchester City for a transfer fee of approximately £65 million. The 30-year-old defensive midfielder, who lifted the FIFA World Cup trophy with Spain this summer as tournament captain and earned Player of the Tournament honors, is set to put pen to paper on a four-year contract with the Catalan club. The formal completion of the transfer is widely expected to be finalized in the coming days, capping a seven-year trophy-laden tenure for Rodri at the Etihad Stadium.

    Rodri arrived at Manchester City back in 2019 from Atletico Madrid for what was then a club-record transfer fee of £62.8 million. Across seven seasons, he made 298 appearances for the Sky Blues, cementing his status as one of the world’s finest holding midfielders and helping the club collect 12 major domestic and European honors. His trophy haul at City includes four Premier League titles, two FA Cups, three EFL Cups, and the iconic 2022-23 Champions League crown that sealed the club’s historic treble. His recent two seasons have been disrupted by significant injury setbacks: he missed the bulk of the 2024-25 campaign with a serious knee injury, and battled recurring hamstring issues that interrupted parts of the 2025-26 season. Even so, Rodri returned to peak form for this summer’s World Cup, leading a young Spanish side to their second-ever world title and reaffirming his elite level ahead of the move to his home country’s top flight.

    With Rodri’s exit all but confirmed, all attention has turned to who Manchester City will bring in to replace the irreplaceable midfield anchor. The club’s long-rumored interest in Chelsea’s Argentine midfield star Enzo Fernandez has been the biggest talking point of the chase, even after the Blues’ stated Friday deadline for offers passed without a formal bid from City. Chelsea set a 17:00 BST deadline for interested parties to submit an offer for the 25-year-old, valuing their vice-captain at a steep £120 million. As of the deadline, Chelsea confirmed no formal bids had been received, and the London club currently expects to retain Fernandez for the coming season.

    Despite the missed deadline, Manchester City does not view the potential deal as dead, multiple sources close to the club have indicated. City’s hierarchy still believes Chelsea remains open to negotiating a sale if the right offer is tabled. A £120 million transfer for Fernandez would make the move the fourth-most expensive in football history, highlighting the scale of the potential deal. For City manager Enzo Maresca, Fernandez is a well-known talent: during Maresca’s tenure as Chelsea head coach, he gave the Argentine 79 appearances out of his 92 total games in charge at Stamford Bridge, even naming Fernandez stand-in captain when first-choice skipper Reece James was sidelined with injury. Though Fernandez is a natural defensive midfielder, Maresca regularly deployed him further up the pitch during Cole Palmer’s injury absence last season, a tactical shift that saw Fernandez net a career-high 15 goals. This positional versatility means he could slot into multiple roles in Maresca’s City system if a transfer goes through. City already added England midfielder Elliot Anderson from Nottingham Forest in this window, giving Maresca the flexibility to field both Anderson and Fernandez together in the same midfield if needed.

    If a deal for Fernandez ultimately falls through, Manchester City has no shortage of backup targets lined up to fill the Rodri-shaped hole. Long-running rumors have linked the club with 18-year-old Moroccan midfield talent Ayyoub Bouaddi of Lille, with reports confirming City has held exploratory talks over a transfer that would cost an estimated £85 million. The young teenager is reportedly eager to make the move to the Premier League champions, after a breakout 12 months that saw him star in Lille’s shock Champions League win over Real Madrid in 2024 before turning in an impressive performance at this summer’s World Cup. Like Rodri, Bouaddi operates as a deep-lying playmaker, and his profile would perfectly complement Anderson, who is a more dynamic box-to-box midfielder. Even at 18, Bouaddi already boasts 30 senior Ligue 1 appearances under his belt, giving him a level of top-flight experience unusual for his age, a valuable asset as City also looks to replace the departed Bernardo Silva this summer.

    Another name under consideration is Bournemouth’s 22-year-old England international Alex Scott. City have explored a potential move for Scott this window, though the Cherries have already stood firm against approaches from other top Premier League sides. Scott has rejected new contract offers from Bournemouth amid the transfer speculation, but his current deal runs until 2028, and the south coast club has repeatedly made clear it has no intention to sell. Last month, Bournemouth rejected a £64 million bid from Chelsea for Scott, and has also knocked back approaches from Arsenal. The young midfielder’s high energy, ball-carrying ability, sharp distribution in the final third and strong duel-winning ability align closely with Maresca’s possession-focused tactical system, making him a very appealing target for City.

    Maresca is also a reported admirer of Liverpool’s Argentine midfielder Alexis Mac Allister. The World Cup winner is entering the final two years of his contract at Anfield, and has been a consistently solid performer for the Reds since his arrival, though he endured a dip in form during the 2025-26 campaign. As a proven Premier League title winner, Mac Allister would bring immediate top-flight experience and would be a ready-made option to slot directly into City’s midfield.

    For now, the landscape remains fluid: it is still unclear whether Manchester City can strike a deal for their top target Fernandez, or whether Chelsea will hold firm on their asking price and refusal to negotiate beyond their self-imposed deadline. What is certain is that the club is moving quickly to fill the gap left by a generational midfield talent as they prepare to defend their Premier League crown and compete for major honors once again.

  • Moroccan security forces arrest nearly 300 migrants trying to reach Spain’s Ceuta

    Moroccan security forces arrest nearly 300 migrants trying to reach Spain’s Ceuta

    Two weeks after one of the deadliest migration crises in recent North African history left at least 90 people dead, Moroccan security services have intervened to block a new coordinated attempt to breach the border with the Spanish exclave of Ceuta. According to reporting from Morocco’s state television, hundreds of migration hopefuls and people accused of facilitating their journeys were taken into custody on Saturday, as joint Moroccan-Spanish security operations ramped up patrols and movement restrictions across the border region.

    Local state broadcaster Medi 1 TV confirmed that out of the 355 people arrested, 294 were sub-Saharan African migrants attempting to reach Ceuta, while the remaining 61 were Moroccan nationals charged with aiding and abetting the unauthorized crossing attempts. The crackdown came in direct response to a widespread campaign of social media posts that called on migrants to organize a new mass crossing of the heavily fortified border. Faced with the prospect of another large-scale humanitarian crisis, both Moroccan and Spanish authorities moved quickly to reinforce border posts, expand security deployments, and restrict civilian travel into high-risk border zones.

    This latest attempted crossing comes on the heels of a devastating mass push two weeks prior, when tens of thousands of migrants driven by widespread poverty and false online misinformation rushed the Ceuta border in an event that marked one of the deadliest migration episodes the region has ever recorded. Official government data puts the death toll from that event at a minimum of 90 people across both sides of the border, but independent human rights organizations have documented far higher casualty numbers.

    Morocco has maintained a heavy security presence along its borders with Ceuta and Melilla, the two Spanish exclaves located on Morocco’s northern Mediterranean coast, for decades. When contacted by the Associated Press for comment on Saturday’s arrests and the scale of current security deployments, Morocco’s interior ministry declined to respond to requests for information. A senior anonymous Moroccan diplomat previously revealed that the country deploys more than 20,000 security personnel to the Ceuta border on a daily basis, an operation that costs the national government hundreds of millions of dollars annually.

    For years, Morocco has served as a key transit route for migrants fleeing conflict, economic instability, and systemic poverty across Africa. Thousands of migration hopefuls arrive in the country each year, drawn by the prospect of crossing into Europe via the Spanish exclaves of Ceuta and Melilla, with the ultimate goal of reaching mainland Spain to access better economic and living opportunities.

  • Houthi missile barrage hits Mocha port as fighting escalates in Yemen

    Houthi missile barrage hits Mocha port as fighting escalates in Yemen

    After more than two years of relative calm across Yemen, large-scale violence has re-erupted, as the Houthi movement has launched a wave of fresh missile and drone strikes against government-held territories that have left civilians dead, injured, and displaced, while forcing a key strategic port to halt all commercial operations. According to Yemeni government officials and multiple regional media reports, the latest escalation of hostilities has shattered the informal truce that had largely held across most of the country since April 2022, with fighting spreading across four key provinces in recent weeks.

    Authorities in Marib Governorate confirmed that over the weekend, Houthi forces launched six ballistic missiles and four unmanned aerial drones targeting residential neighborhoods in the densely populated provincial capital of Marib. The governorate’s media office stated that the strikes wounded at least four civilians and caused extensive damage to private homes, civilian vehicles, and other civilian infrastructure. One of the projectiles directly hit a local bakery in the al-Sharika district, located just north of Marib city, leaving one baker with serious injuries. Photographs released by the governorate after the attack show a large impact crater in a residential neighborhood and the burned wreckage of a civilian vehicle damaged in the strike.

    Officials have emphasized that the ongoing offensive puts not just local residents at risk, but also the thousands of displaced Yemenis who have sought shelter in camps across Marib Governorate, which has long been a safe haven for people fleeing violence in other parts of the country. The Marib media office has issued an urgent appeal to the global community, calling for immediate condemnation of what it describes as deliberate crimes against civilian populations, displacement camps, and civilian infrastructure, and urging the international community to formally document these attacks as violations of international humanitarian law. The strikes on Marib match earlier reports of multiple missile and drone attacks targeting civilian sites across the province, which were confirmed by both Yemen’s state-run Saba TV and government-aligned Aljoumhouria TV, which reported widespread explosions across the city over the weekend.

    Further south, repeated Houthi attacks on the Red Sea port city of Mocha have forced a full suspension of all commercial and maritime operations at the strategic facility, according to port director Abdulmalik al-Sharabi. Sharabi told Yemen’s state-run Saba news agency that the strikes have killed seven people: four security personnel assigned to protect the port and three civilian port employees. Total economic damage from the attacks is estimated at $16 million, he added.

    Located in southwestern Taiz province just off the Bab al-Mandab Strait, a key global shipping chokepoint connecting the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, Mocha port has faced more than 25 missile strikes since August 9. This marks the first time the facility has been targeted since the 2022 truce went into effect. The attacks damaged six wooden commercial fishing vessels and a large dredger that was being used for a port expansion project designed to increase the facility’s capacity to receive critical humanitarian and commercial shipments. With all operations halted, approximately 1,300 port workers have been left without any source of income, Sharabi said. Just days earlier, the government-aligned National Resistance Forces reported that Houthi forces had launched 40 ballistic missiles, 46 drones, and several explosive-laden boats targeting Mocha, its port, and surrounding civilian sites in the preceding week.

    Houthi officials have pushed back on government claims, stating that their strikes only targeted legitimate military objectives: military gatherings, weapons storage depots, and military vessels operating in the area around Mocha.

    The resurgence of violence has not been limited to Marib and Mocha. Clashes have also intensified in southwestern Taiz province, where Yemeni military officials reported that three Houthi fighters were killed and multiple others, including senior field commanders, were wounded in a Yemeni army drone strike on Saturday. A military source told Saba TV that the drone attack targeted Houthi personnel and vehicles on the Maqbanah front, located west of Taiz city.

    In the weeks since the relative calm that followed the 2022 truce collapsed, fighting has intensified across Marib, al-Jawf, al-Dhalea, and Taiz, undoing most of the progress toward stability that the truce had enabled.

    Yemen’s nearly decade-long conflict began in September 2014, when Houthi forces seized the capital Sanaa and large swathes of northern and western Yemen, forcing the internationally recognized Yemeni government into exile. The ensuing conflict has dragged Yemen into what the United Nations has repeatedly described as one of the world’s worst humanitarian and economic crises, with more than 21 million Yemenis in need of humanitarian assistance and millions facing acute food insecurity.

    Rashad al-Alimi, chairman of Yemen’s internationally backed Presidential Leadership Council, warned that the recent attacks on Mocha port pose a direct threat to regional shipping traffic and to the flow of critical food and fuel supplies into Yemen, a country that relies on imports for more than 90 percent of its food. The disruption of port operations, he said, threatens to push Yemen’s already catastrophic food crisis even further.

  • Brazil’s Lula and Flávio Bolsonaro kick off their presidential campaigns

    Brazil’s Lula and Flávio Bolsonaro kick off their presidential campaigns

    On Sunday, Brazil’s two leading contenders for the October presidential election officially launched their campaign cycles, marking the first day of permitted electoral activity under the country’s electoral rules, in a contest already shaping up to be one of the most competitive in recent Brazilian history.

    Incumbent President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva kicked off his bid for a fourth nonconsecutive term at Vila Euclides Stadium, located just outside São Paulo in São Bernardo do Campo. The venue holds deep personal and political meaning for Lula: it was here 47 years ago, during Brazil’s 1964 to 1985 military dictatorship, that he first rose to national prominence as a metalworkers’ union leader. More than 10,000 cheering supporters packed the stadium to hear his opening campaign address.

    Across the country in Rio de Janeiro, Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro, the 45-year-old son of former far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, held his own campaign kickoff on iconic Copacabana Beach, drawing thousands of conservative voters. Notably absent was the elder Bolsonaro, who remains under house arrest following his conviction on charges related to an attempted coup against Lula’s 2022 inauguration, and is barred from running for public office in this cycle.

    A core theme of Lula’s opening address was pushing back against perceived external meddling in Brazil’s democratic process. His political allies have repeatedly accused the U.S. government of taking deliberate actions to bolster Flávio Bolsonaro’s campaign, including imposing new tariffs on Brazilian exports and revoking the visa of Brazil’s ambassador to Washington. Lula reiterated that outside powers would not be allowed to dictate Brazil’s electoral outcome or exploit the country’s natural resources. Speaking of Brazil’s vast untapped reserves of critical rare earth minerals, Lula emphasized, “No one [abroad] will tap our minerals. We are going to tap them for the benefit of the Brazilian people.”

    With women making up nearly 53% of Brazil’s 158 million registered eligible voters, both candidates centered their opening messaging on courting this decisive voting bloc. Standing alongside his wife, First Lady Rosângela da Silva — who served as one of the event’s keynote speakers — Lula called for structural cultural change to advance gender equality. “Men need to learn from childhood that they are no better than women. We need to be equal,” he said, announcing that he would release his full campaign platform within 10 days, including detailed proposals to expand educational access for women and strengthen laws to prevent and punish gender-based violence.

    Flávio Bolsonaro echoed that rhetoric, positioning his own campaign as committed to combating violence against women, appearing alongside his mother and wife at the Copacabana Beach rally. The younger Bolsonaro, tapped as the Liberal Party’s presidential candidate by his father, has faced early challenges to his campaign, with multiple moderate Brazilian political parties refusing to align with his ticket. Looking to distance himself from his father’s polarizing legacy and establish an independent political identity, Flávio Bolsonaro leaned into populist conservative messaging in his opening address. He vowed to crack down on violent crime and purge what he frames as left-wing ideological influence from Brazilian public schools, arguing that “every student has the right to dream of being Elon Musk someday.”

    Ahead of his public appearance, Flávio Bolsonaro claimed during a live social media broadcast that he has received more than 1,800 death threats, though he offered no evidence to support the assertion. He appeared in public wearing a bulletproof vest, referencing the 2018 stabbing attack on his father during that year’s presidential campaign, which left the elder Bolsonaro with severe internal injuries. Addressing the widespread comparisons between himself and his father, Flávio Bolsonaro acknowledged their physical resemblance but pushed back on being seen as a mere stand-in for the former president. “I know I look like him. But it is hard to compare Pelé’s son with Pelé,” he said, referencing the legendary three-time World Cup-winning Brazilian footballer who died in 2022.

  • Colombian president asks Trump to suspend tariffs to help earthquake recovery

    Colombian president asks Trump to suspend tariffs to help earthquake recovery

    Just days after being sworn into office, Colombia’s newly inaugurated President Abelardo de la Espriella is turning to his U.S. political ally, former President Donald Trump, for critical economic relief following a catastrophic 7.4-magnitude earthquake that has already claimed at least 289 lives across western regions of the South American nation.

    De la Espriella, who secured his presidential victory in a closely contested June 21 runoff election with public backing from Trump, has made strengthening bilateral ties with the U.S. a central pillar of his young administration. In a post shared to the social platform X on Saturday night, the new leader confirmed he had held a conversation with Trump to discuss disaster response efforts. He thanked the U.S. for the emergency assistance already dispatched, and formally asked Trump to temporarily lift punitive tariffs on Colombian exports, a move that would ease pressure on domestic business owners grappling with widespread economic disruption from the disaster.

    As of Sunday, the Trump administration has not issued a public response to de la Espriella’s request. The U.S. State Department has confirmed that Washington has already committed $26.5 million in emergency aid to Colombia, including critical provisions such as non-perishable food, temporary emergency shelter, and essential medical and public health supplies.

    The powerful quake struck early on a Monday morning, carving a path of destruction across western Colombia, including major urban centers like Pereira, Cali, and Quibdo. Communities along Colombia’s Pacific coastline suffered the most severe damage, prompting President de la Espriella to immediately declare a national natural disaster across affected regions.

    Official government data puts the number of missing people at 143, though independent civilian-led tracking databases estimate the figure could be as high as thousands. According to the latest government updates, the disaster has injured 3,937 people, fully destroyed more than 14,700 residential structures, and left an additional 81,536 homes damaged to varying degrees. The epicenter of the quake was located in Choco, one of Colombia’s poorest and most underserved regions, exacerbating the challenges for first responders.

    In Cali, Colombia’s third-largest city, search and rescue teams continue to comb through collapsed infrastructure for more than 70 local residents reported missing. Even though the critical 48 to 72-hour window for finding trapped survivors has closed, rescue operations and hopes of finding people alive persist. More than 120 hours after the quake hit, Cali Mayor Alejandro Eder told reporters at the unified emergency command post that teams remain committed to their work, holding onto the possibility of unexpected outcomes. “Miracles do happen,” Eder said, adding that crews would continue operations in all areas where victims are believed to remain trapped, driven by the hope of bringing survivors out.

  • ‘Probably my last year’ – Ronaldo hints at retirement

    ‘Probably my last year’ – Ronaldo hints at retirement

    At 41 years old, one of football’s most iconic figures, Cristiano Ronaldo, has indicated that the current campaign is poised to be the final chapter of his extraordinary 25-year professional playing career, as he prepares to shift his focus toward family life following his recent wedding. The five-time Ballon d’Or winner, who tied the knot with long-time partner Georgina Rodriguez this Tuesday, opened up about his post-football plans in a new interview with Vogue, revealing he has already mapped out a busy future filled with new activities to fill the void that retiring from the sport will leave.

  • ‘Number of fatalities’ and four injured after car drives on wrong side of motorway

    ‘Number of fatalities’ and four injured after car drives on wrong side of motorway

    In the early hours of Sunday local time, a devastating two-vehicle crash on the M9 Motorway in County Kildare, Republic of Ireland, has left multiple people dead and four others hospitalized with life-threatening injuries. The collision unfolded at approximately 3:00 a.m. near Junction 3 on the M9’s northbound carriageway, when one vehicle traveled the wrong direction along the road and collided head-on with a second passenger car.

    Irish national police, known as Gardaí, confirmed the fatalities in an official statement released after the incident. The four injured victims, all occupants of the second vehicle, have been transported to separate regional medical facilities across the country. The driver and front-seat passenger, both women in their 30s, are currently being treated at Tallaght University Hospital, where both remain in critical condition. A female rear-seat passenger in her 20s was admitted to St. Luke’s General Hospital in serious condition, while the fourth injured person – a child – was transferred to Children’s Health Ireland at Crumlin, also listed in serious condition.

    In the wake of the crash, authorities have closed a stretch of the M9 spanning both northbound and southbound lanes between Junction 3 and Junction 4, with signed local diversions put in place to redirect motorists. Contradicting early unconfirmed reports, state broadcaster RTÉ has confirmed that Gardaí were not engaged in a pursuit of the wrong-way vehicle at the time of the collision.

    Per standard protocol for incidents involving fatalities or severe harm linked to police interaction, the Office of the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland, Fiosrú, has been notified of the crash. An on-call team of independent investigators from the watchdog traveled to the crash site immediately to launch a probe. Fiosrú officials clarified that a mandatory referral for investigation does not imply any allegation of misconduct on behalf of Gardaí. Instead, the independent review is required to determine whether any action or inaction by police contributed to the deaths or serious injuries suffered in the incident.

    Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly issued a stark condemnation of the reckless driving that led to the tragedy, labeling the crash a “horrific incident.” Kelly noted that all the injured victims were “innocently traveling” family members when they were struck by the wrong-way vehicle. He drew particular attention to a dangerous growing trend of reckless driving stunts performed for social media attention, saying: “What makes this reckless behaviour even more appalling is that in some cases it is being done for social media likes regardless of the potentially devastating impact it might have on innocent people and themselves.”

    Kelly added that Gardaí officers face uniquely challenging positions when responding to these incidents, as they work to stop dangerous drivers while prioritizing the safety of other innocent road users. “Gardaí are put in a really challenging situation dealing with such incidents,” he said.

    Local political leaders have also reacted to the tragedy, expressing profound sorrow for the lives lost and those affected. Shónagh Ní Raghallaigh, Sinn Féin TD for Kildare South, described the crash scene as “absolutely catastrophic.” “My deepest sympathies go out to the families of those who have lost their lives, and for those who remain in a critical condition in hospital,” she said. “My heart also goes out to the first responders and all of those working in our emergency services who were met with the most horrific of scenes this morning. This loss of life is colossal and the effect those losses will have on their friends and families is incalculable.”

    Investigating officers are now asking for the public’s assistance to build a complete picture of the incident. Gardaí are appealing to any witnesses who saw the collision to contact investigators immediately. They are also requesting any motorists who were traveling on either the northbound or southbound M9 between 2:00 a.m. and 3:00 a.m. on Sunday, and who have dashcam footage of the crash or the surrounding area in that time frame, to share the recording with authorities.

  • Two dead and evacuation under way as fires break out on Greek island

    Two dead and evacuation under way as fires break out on Greek island

    On a Sunday marked by extreme wildfire risk, two separate blazes ignited just minutes apart on Salamina, a populated Greek island located a short distance west of Athens, leaving two people dead and triggering a large-scale emergency evacuation operation. The first fire was recorded at 14:40 local time, 12:40 GMT, and both blazes spread at an alarming speed, driven by gusty high winds that have created dangerous fire conditions across Southern Europe this weekend. Roughly 200 firefighters have been deployed to Salamina to battle the flames, backed by a fleet of air support assets, 50 fire engines, multiple coast guard patrol boats, and dozens of private watercraft that have been mobilized to assist with evacuation efforts. As of the latest updates, around 90 residents have already been evacuated from high-risk areas by sea, with more evacuation operations ongoing. Thodoris Zannis, Deputy Mayor of Salamina, noted that firefighters are working against the clock to stop the two blazes from spreading across the island’s central mountain range and merging into a single massive, uncontrollable wildfire. Salamina is home to approximately 37,000 permanent residents, a large share of whom are elderly people with limited ability to evacuate independently. This incident comes as fire crews across the entire European continent grapple with a surge in wildfire activity this weekend, fueled by a sustained period of extreme high heat that has parched vegetation and turned large swathes of Southern Europe into tinderboxes. The dual simultaneous blazes near one of Europe’s major capital cities have underscored the growing risk of extreme wildfire events linked to rising global temperatures.

  • Arsenal rout Man City in Community Shield masterclass

    Arsenal rout Man City in Community Shield masterclass

    The 2025 FA Community Shield, the traditional opening fixture of the English football season, ended in a statement 3-0 rout for reigning Premier League champions Arsenal over 2024 runner-up Manchester City at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium on Sunday. The commanding victory not only gave Arsenal their 18th Community Shield title, but also sent a clear signal that the north London club has no plans to loosen its grip on the top-flight crown after ending a two-decade title drought last season.

    Arsenal set the tone of the match inside the opening minute. Teenage midfield prospect Myles Lewis-Skelly, who has been linked with big-money moves to Chelsea and Manchester United in recent transfer windows, split City’s entire defensive line with a perfectly weighted through ball. Summer signing Riccardo Calafiori burst onto the pass, evaded slack marking to drill a composed 12-yard finish past City goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma, scoring the fastest Community Shield goal since 1968.

    The Gunners doubled their lead in the 27th minute. Another of Arsenal’s close-season recruits, Christos Tzolis—signed from Club Brugge for £34 million—found himself unmarked at the far post after a floated cross from captain Martin Odegaard. The winger nodded the ball back into the six-yard box, where Kai Havertz rose above City defender Ruben Dias to head home a clinical second goal. By half-time, Mikel Arteta’s side held a comfortable two-goal advantage, with their trademark high intensity overwhelming a disjointed City side.

    Three minutes after the interval, Arsenal put the result beyond doubt. Tzolis, who turned in a lively performance that yielded two assists, rolled a perfectly timed pass into Odegaard’s path. The Arsenal captain weaved through a static City defense, pulled off a clever dummy that left Donnarumma wrong-footed, and tapped home into an empty net to seal the resounding win.

    The fixture also served as a promising first public display for Arsenal’s other marquee summer addition: Bruno Guimaraes, who joined from Newcastle United for a £75 million ($101 million) transfer fee. The Brazilian midfielder slotted seamlessly into Arteta’s system, providing consistent defensive cover and creative distribution in the center of the park.

    For new Manchester City manager Enzo Maresca, the result was a sobering wake-up call just weeks ahead of his first full season in charge. Maresca was hand-picked to replace Pep Guardiola, who departed the club after a trophy-laden decade that included 20 major honors. His side struggled for cohesion all afternoon: £116 million summer signing Elliot Anderson, recently arrived from Nottingham Forest, failed to make any meaningful impact on the game, while talismanic striker Erling Haaland was largely anonymous, wasting two clear first-half chances to get City on the scoreboard.

    Guardiola’s final season at the Etihad ended with FA Cup and League Cup trophies, but City finished seven points behind Arsenal in the Premier League table last term, failing to defend the title they had won four consecutive times between 2020 and 2024. Maresca, who left Chelsea in January after a turbulent six-month reign, now faces a clear challenge to overhaul the gap between his side and the champions ahead of City’s opening league fixture against Bournemouth on August 23.

    Arsenal, by contrast, head into the new campaign with growing momentum. Arteta insisted after the match that his side remains as hungry for silverware as ever, with their painful penalty shootout loss to Paris Saint-Germain in May’s Champions League final providing extra motivation to push for more trophies this season.

    The Gunners will start the new Premier League campaign as defending champions for the first time since the 2004-05 season, and are already installed as pre-tournament favorites to claim back-to-back titles, a feat no English top-flight side has achieved since Arsenal’s run in the 1930s. They open their title defense at the Emirates Stadium against newly promoted Coventry City on August 21, and on the evidence of Sunday’s performance, they look well-placed to establish a prolonged period of dominance in the Premier League.

    Historically, the Community Shield has been a poor predictor of future league success: only City, in 2019, has gone on to win the Premier League title after lifting the Community Shield in the last 15 editions of the fixture. But few could deny that Arsenal’s dominant display in Cardiff suggests this could be the season where Arteta’s side adds more silverware to their 2024 title triumph.

  • US House speaker gave Netanyahu an ‘Israel killed Jesus’ pamphlet

    US House speaker gave Netanyahu an ‘Israel killed Jesus’ pamphlet

    Less than one month after Israeli strikes targeted Iranian nuclear facilities in June 2025, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu traveled to Washington D.C. for a high-stakes private meeting with U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson in his Capitol Hill office. What has remained unreported until now, however, is the controversial materials Johnson shared with Netanyahu during their discussion: a two-part Bible study pamphlet produced by Capitol Ministries that repeats the ancient, widely discredited antisemitic blood libel of deicide — the false claim that all Jewish people bear collective responsibility for the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

    While the materials frame themselves as pro-Israel advocacy urging U.S. politicians to align with the Israeli government, they reiterate a deicide charge that has been rejected as baseless by all major world religious bodies for decades. The study, which was recycled from content first produced years earlier, was reposted in mid-June 2025 to build congressional and White House support for U.S. military intervention alongside Israel following Israel’s offensive against Iran.

    Capitol Ministries, the organization that produces Bible study groups for members of the House, Senate, White House and U.S. governors, regularly repurposes older lessons to match current political events. The 2025 materials draw on text that dates as far back as 2011, when the guide first began warning about Iran’s nuclear program. Phrasing framing the study as a timely biblical primer for U.S. support for Israel has appeared in the document since at least October 2021, meaning the content was not newly written for the 2025 escalation. A 2011 note about Iran’s “nearly-enriched nuclear threat” also remained untouched in the revised pamphlet.

    Over more than a decade, this recycled content has circulated among dozens of high-profile Republican leaders across the Trump administration and GOP-led Congress. Senate Majority Leader John Thune has been closely affiliated with Capitol Ministries and its founders Ralph and Danielle Drollinger for more than a decade, describing the group in 2015 as a guiding force that encourages elected officials to align their governance and personal conduct with Christian theology. Current Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also regularly participates in the group’s White House Bible study, the Pentagon confirmed in 2025.

    Weeks after the study materials were circulated, then-President Donald Trump ordered three separate military strikes on Iranian nuclear targets in late June 2025. Netanyahu’s meeting with Johnson on Capitol Hill preceded his scheduled White House talks with Trump. Following their discussion, Netanyahu noted publicly that “First comes strength, then comes peace,” while Johnson released only a brief general statement about the meeting. Full details of the exchange only emerged in Capitol Ministries’ 2025 annual report, where Johnson acknowledged sharing the two-part Drollinger study titled “The Biblical Case for Defending Israel” with Netanyahu, and that the pair discussed the content at length before Netanyahu departed with a copy. Johnson called Capitol Ministries “an invaluable resource” that provides timely biblical insight that shapes both personal conduct and legislative decision-making for hundreds of members of Congress.

    The first of Drollinger’s two study guides explicitly repeats the deicide claim, arguing that the Abrahamic Covenant only applies to the Christian Church “for a time” because of Israel’s “present apostasy, having executed the Messiah.” In a companion video for the second lesson, Drollinger doubles down on the claim, stating that Jews were “sidetracked” by God “because they crucified their messiah.” Johnson is listed alongside dozens of other Republican politicians as an official sponsor of the study materials.

    Neither Johnson’s congressional office nor the Israeli Embassy in Washington D.C. responded to requests for comment or confirmation of the exchange. This revelation marks not the first controversy tied to Drollinger, who has previously made headlines for derogatory public remarks targeting women, Catholics and LGBTQ+ people. Nor is it Johnson’s first unreported act of faith-based diplomacy with major national security implications: his previously undisclosed meetings with a Ukrainian evangelical advocacy leader ultimately led him to support U.S. military aid to Ukraine.

    The incident also shines a light on a long-running debate over antisemitic rhetoric in Congress surrounding deicide claims. In 2024, then-Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer was advancing the Antisemitism Awareness Act, which would codify a legal definition of antisemitism that included labeling the collective deicide charge as antisemitic. Schumer warned that an unidentified Republican senator planned to introduce an amendment that would explicitly exempt deicide claims from the legal definition of antisemitism — meaning calling Jews “Christ-killers” would not be classified as a form of religious bigotry under federal policy.

    Schumer approached Johnson, who had already shepherded the bill through the House, to ask for help attaching the antisemitism legislation to a must-pass military spending bill. This procedural move would have blocked the divisive deicide amendment from reaching a floor vote, which Schumer argued would embolden antisemitism across the United States. Johnson rejected Schumer’s request. In April 2025, reporting from The Forward identified Senator Bill Cassidy, a Republican from Louisiana and a Capitol Ministries sponsor since 2013, as the lawmaker planning to introduce the amendment. Representative Josh Brecheen of Oklahoma ultimately voted against the Antisemitism Awareness Act over its inclusion of deicide as an antisemitic claim, arguing that blaming Jews for the crucifixion is a “biblical and historical fact” and that the bill mischaracterized biblical text as bigotry. The bill collapsed after a flood of bipartisan amendments cost it the needed majority support.

    Johnson only became an official sponsor of Drollinger’s House Bible study in May 2025, one month before he shared the Israel-focused study with Netanyahu. Just months earlier, senior leaders in the second Trump administration had revived the weekly White House cabinet Bible study run by Capitol Ministries. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, one of the leaders of the revived study, is currently facing a lawsuit for proselytizing to her non-religious staff. Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought, another key leader of the initiative, faced scrutiny during his 2017 confirmation hearing when he refused to reject the claim that non-Christians, including Jews, are “condemned” for not accepting Jesus as a savior.

    There is no public evidence confirming whether Johnson’s policy positions are shaped by Drollinger’s teachings, or if he sponsors the Bible studies because their theology already aligns with his long-held personal beliefs. When asked in 2024 if he believed there was a biblical justification for U.S. support for Israel, Johnson confirmed his personal view that the Torah’s promise that God “will bless the nation that blesses Israel and curse the nation that curses Israel” is a core reason for his support, adding that faith adds a deeper layer to his already pragmatic support for the Middle Eastern democracy.

    This position directly aligns with Drollinger’s core theology, as laid out in the study shared with Netanyahu. Drollinger argues that while Jews collectively committed deicide by killing Jesus — a claim that all major Christian denominations have formally renounced — God has only temporarily set the Jewish people aside, rather than voiding the original Abrahamic Covenant. Because of this, he argues, the promise of blessings for allies of Israel and curses for its enemies remains in effect, requiring Christian politicians to support Israel to receive divine favor. Drollinger also repeats other common antisemitic tropes in his materials, including claims that Jewish people are inherently “smart” and “good with money,” tropes that have been used to justify anti-Jewish persecution for centuries.

    The irony of the moment is hard to overstate: Netanyahu himself has explicitly referenced the long history of antisemitic violence tied to the deicide myth, telling the United Nations years ago that “For centuries the Jewish people have been demonized with blood libels and charges of deicide.” The Anti-Defamation League similarly classifies the deicide claim as a dangerous antisemitic myth, noting that “the myth that Jews collectively murdered Jesus … has been used to justify violence against Jews for centuries. Historians as well as Christian leaders have agreed that the claim is baseless.” Multiple Jewish and secular advocacy groups condemned the 2025 Bible study for repeating the harmful slur.

    Despite this, the incident offers a clear reminder that evangelical Christian theology shapes U.S. foreign policy in underreported ways. While many evangelical leaders are vocal supporters of Israel, that support is often tied to end-times theology that requires a sovereign state of Israel for Jesus Christ to return to Earth — even as that same theology perpetuates core antisemitic claims like deicide. Following the U.S. entry into the 2025 strikes on Iran, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation received reports from active-duty service members that military commanders were openly celebrating the strikes as a sign that the biblical End Times were imminent, with grinning leaders telling subordinates the attack fulfilled prophecies in the Book of Revelation.

    Drollinger argues that his work does not create new pro-Israel beliefs among members of Congress and the cabinet, but rather reinforces existing predispositions rooted in their cultural Christian backgrounds, providing a formal biblical foundation for their policy positions. “We need to buoy the convictions of our members based upon Scriptural truths … so that, when push comes to shove, they know why they believe they’re pro-Israel: from what the Bible says,” he explained. In recent years, as congressional Democrats have increasingly broken with Israeli policy and voted in growing numbers against U.S. arms transfers to Israel, Drollinger has argued that the Republican Party’s alignment with biblical teaching makes their pro-Israel stance righteous, while the Democratic Party’s departure from Mosaic law will lead to its political ruin. Drollinger insists he does not advocate for Christian nationalism or theocracy, but simply wants elected officials to align all their policy decisions with what he frames as God’s will.

    This investigative report was originally published on Jonathan Larsen’s Substack and is republished with permission. Larsen is an independent journalist and former executive producer at MSNBC.