Global Pulse

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  • Kylian Mbappé sparks France with two goals in 3-1 win over Senegal at the World Cup

    Kylian Mbappé sparks France with two goals in 3-1 win over Senegal at the World Cup

    On a sun-drenched 25-degree Celsius afternoon at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium, defending World Cup finalist France pulled off a dramatic second-half comeback to defeat Senegal 3-1 in its Group I opening match, powered by a two-goal masterclass from global superstar Kylian Mbappé that cemented his place among World Cup’s all-time greats.

    The match got off to a shockingly slow and lopsided start, with France looking uncharacteristically tentative. Les Bleus managed just one shot to Senegal’s five in the first 45 minutes, a performance defender William Saliba openly admitted was underwhelming. “In the first half, we weren’t good, they were better than us,” Saliba said. Mbappé, the team’s attacking linchpin, recorded only 14 touches — fewer than any other player on the pitch — and the half ended goalless, with Senegal’s Nicolas Jackson coming inches from opening the scoring when his 25th-minute effort struck the post, bounced off France goalkeeper Mike Maignan’s heel and rolled out of play.

    Whatever France coach Didier Deschamps said at halftime sparked an immediate turnaround. The 2018 and 2022 World Cup finalists took full control after the break, outshooting Senegal 10-1, and broke the deadlock in the 66th minute through Mbappé’s trademark clinical finishing. The forward burst past Senegal captain Kalidou Koulibaly, collected a diagonal pass from Michael Olise, and slotted the ball past goalkeeper Édouard Mendy from just outside the six-yard box to put France ahead.

    Substitute Bradley Barcola doubled the advantage just two minutes after entering the pitch in the 80th minute, latching onto a perfectly weighted through ball from Adrien Rabiot and lifting a cool finish over Mendy to net his fourth international goal. Senegal pulled one back five minutes into stoppage time when forward Ibrahim Mbaye converted an angled shot, but Mbappé answered immediately a minute later with a stunning long-range strike that sailed over Mendy’s outstretched arm and nestled just under the crossbar to seal the 3-1 result.

    The two goals pushed Mbappé’s career World Cup tally to 14, moving him past Brazilian legend Pelé, Argentina’s Lionel Messi and French icon Just Fontaine into a tie for third place with Germany’s Gerd Müller on the all-time World Cup scoring list. Only Germany’s Miroslav Klose (16) and Brazil’s Ronaldo (15) now sit ahead of the 25-year-old. He also set a new French national team record with 58 international goals, passing former striker Olivier Giroud by one.

    Off the pitch, the match faced unusual disruptions: the U.S. government denied visas for hundreds of Senegal supporters, leaving the Lions of Teranga’s fanbase restricted to just a few small sections in the stadium’s southwest corner, even as the overall crowd of 80,545 came just short of a sellout. Ticket prices dropped dramatically in the hours before kickoff, falling as low as $69 on FIFA’s official resale platform, down from the original $220 to $620 price point when tickets first went on sale in December.

    Looking ahead to Group I play, France will next face Iraq in Philadelphia on Monday, before wrapping up its first-round schedule against Norway on June 26 in Foxborough, Massachusetts. Senegal will take on Norway at MetLife Stadium on Monday, before closing out group play against Iraq in Toronto. Deschamps acknowledged the team’s rocky start but celebrated the valuable opening three points. “It’s relief. We did have some apprehension,” Deschamps said through a translator. “It’s always great to start with a win. It’s not decisive, but it’s good to start in that way.” The result keeps France on track to pursue its historic bid for a third consecutive World Cup final appearance.

  • One Extraordinary Photo: An overhead look at New Zealand’s Elijah Just scoring against Iran

    One Extraordinary Photo: An overhead look at New Zealand’s Elijah Just scoring against Iran

    For four decades, Mark J. Terrill has built a legendary career capturing some of sports’ most unforgettable moments, and his work at the 2022 FIFA World Cup offered another example of how innovative camera work can redefine sports photography.

    Terrill’s journey in photojournalism began unexpectedly early: at just 16 years old, 44 years ago, he started out as a freelance contributor primarily for the Associated Press. While studying photojournalism in college, he began experimenting with sports photography and remote-triggered camera setups, and quickly developed a lifelong passion for the craft. He went on to join AP as a full-time staff photographer in 1997.

    In a breakdown of one of his standout World Cup shots — capturing New Zealand forward Elijah Just scoring against Iran — Terrill explained the creative logic behind the image that sets it apart from typical match photography.

    “One of the primary goals (no pun intended) of a photographer is to make a different photograph,” Terrill explained. “Different in the sense that your competition doesn’t have it and that the audience hasn’t seen it before. One of the ways to do this is with remotely triggered cameras. They not only allow you to be in more than one place at a time but it also allows you to be in positions where you can’t physically be.”

    The unique vantage point of this shot, which gives viewers a one-of-a-kind overhead look at the goal-mouth action, would have been impossible for Terrill to capture in person from his spot on the pitch sideline. To pull off the shot, he installed a total of four remote cameras along the overhead catwalk of Los Angeles Stadium (now SoFi Stadium), where the match was held: one positioned behind each goal, and another angled toward each goal from the side. Two additional remote cameras were placed behind the goal where Just scored, all synced to radio transceivers that let Terrill trigger the shutters himself from his on-pitch press position.

    Terrill noted that the finished image checks every box for a standout soccer photograph. It clearly captures all the key narrative elements of a goal: Just in the act of scoring, the Iran goalkeeper failing to make the save, and defending players reacting to the play in the background. It also benefits from a clean, uncluttered backdrop that keeps the focus firmly on the high-stakes action, rather than distracting from the moment.

    This behind-the-scenes look at Terrill’s process offers a rare glimpse into the technical skill and creative planning that goes into capturing iconic sports imagery on the world’s biggest stage.

  • Tim Payne, New Zealand’s viral World Cup star, to join Paraguay club Olimpia, source says

    Tim Payne, New Zealand’s viral World Cup star, to join Paraguay club Olimpia, source says

    DALLAS (AP) — An unlikely rise to global fame has earned a little-known New Zealand soccer defender a once-in-a-lifetime career move: 38-year-old Tim Payne, who went from relative obscurity to international social media celebrity in the span of weeks, is set to leave his current club Wellington Phoenix to join Olimpia, the defending Paraguayan top-flight champion and one of South America’s most storied soccer institutions.

    The details of the impending transfer were confirmed to The Associated Press on Tuesday by an insider close to the negotiation process, who spoke on condition of anonymity because Olimpia has not yet scheduled an official public announcement of the signing. The source also declined to disclose the financial terms of Payne’s upcoming contract with the club.

    Payne’s explosive leap into the global spotlight traces back to a viral social media campaign launched by Argentine influencer El Scarso. The content creator set out to find the most low-profile player at this year’s FIFA World Cup, settling on Payne due to his tiny pre-tournament social media following. El Scarso called on his own followers to band together to turn the little-known New Zealander into a household name, and the campaign quickly caught fire across platforms.

    In the weeks following the campaign’s launch, Payne’s Instagram follower count skyrocketed from just under 5,000 to more than 5.8 million, a more than 1,000-fold increase that captured the attention of clubs across the globe. The outpouring of support for Payne has even spawned an original fan song in Spanish, whose chorus declares devotion to the defender: “I’ve got his back. I cheer him on. I’ve been rooting for him from the beginning. Tim Payne, from cradle to grave. You’re a crack. I cheer you on, every step.” The track also leans into a playful pun on Payne’s name, closing with the line “no Payne, no gain.”

    Payne got the chance to show his on-pitch skills to his new global fan base earlier this week, starting in New Zealand’s opening Group G match against Iran that ended in a 2-2 draw on Monday. The All Whites, New Zealand’s men’s national soccer team, are still chasing their first ever World Cup win across three tournament appearances.

  • France striker Kylian Mbappé scores his 13th World Cup goal, breaking a tie with Pelé

    France striker Kylian Mbappé scores his 13th World Cup goal, breaking a tie with Pelé

    EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – In a landmark moment for men’s World Cup soccer history, Kylian Mbappé notched his 13th career tournament goal on Tuesday, surpassing Brazilian legend Pelé to pull level for fourth place on the competition’s all-time scoring list. The strike, which came in the 66th minute of France’s 2026 World Cup opening fixture against Senegal, marked the 27-year-old’s 57th goal for the French men’s national team, tying him with veteran striker Olivier Giroud for the country’s all-time senior team scoring record.

    Playing in his third consecutive World Cup, Mbappé now matches the career World Cup goal tallies of Argentina’s Lionel Messi and French legend Just Fontaine. He sits just one goal behind Germany’s iconic forward Gerd Müller in the all-time rankings, and two goals back of Brazil’s Ronaldo, who holds third place with 15 goals. The all-time World Cup scoring record is currently held by Germany’s Miroslav Klose, who sits atop the list with 16 goals over his tournament career.

    Mbappé’s path to the historic goal included multiple early near-misses, after the Real Madrid star repeatedly found open space between Senegal’s defensive line in the opening 14 minutes of the match. Senegalese starting goalkeeper Édouard Mendy denied several of Mbappé’s early attempts, including a close-range chance in the opening half, where Mbappé struggled with uncharacteristically sloppy ball control for much of the period before the French attack began to click as the half drew to a close.

    A proven winner on the global stage, Mbappé helped lead France to World Cup glory in 2018, and guided the side to the 2022 tournament final, where he earned the Silver Ball award as the competition’s second-best player after a memorable individual performance. Entering the 2026 World Cup, France enters as co-tournament favorites alongside Spain, with Mbappé leading a dynamic attacking unit that also includes young talent Désiré Doué and reigning Ballon d’Or winner Ousmane Dembélé. Off the club front, Mbappé carried a red-hot scoring form into the international break, having netted 25 times for Real Madrid in the 2024-2025 domestic season.

  • ‘From outlier to trailblazer’: How Oman offers a glimpse into the post-war Gulf

    ‘From outlier to trailblazer’: How Oman offers a glimpse into the post-war Gulf

    When former U.S. President Donald Trump threatened military action against Oman over its refusal to side with Washington’s war on Iran, few could have predicted that this small Gulf sultanate would emerge as the primary beneficiary of the new regional order being negotiated between the U.S. and the Islamic Republic. This surprising turn of events, which may seem counterintuitive at first glance, is reshaping regional power dynamics, with Western, Arab, and even U.S. diplomatic sources acknowledging that Oman stands to gain the most from the shifting landscape.

  • Paying homage to Socceroos great Tim Cahill has become a World Cup tradition for Australia

    Paying homage to Socceroos great Tim Cahill has become a World Cup tradition for Australia

    Two decades have passed since Tim Cahill etched one of the most recognizable celebrations in Australian soccer history into global memory. During the opening match of the 2006 FIFA World Cup against Japan, Cahill scored a dramatic late equalizer to turn the tide of the game, which ultimately ended in a 3-1 Australian victory. Immediately after the ball hit the back of the net, the forward sprinted to the corner of the pitch and launched into a playful shadow boxing routine against the corner flag. What began as an impulsive moment of joy has grown into a beloved generational tradition for Australian soccer at the World Cup.

    Months after Cahill hung up his boots in 2019, another Australian star carried the tradition onto one of the sport’s biggest stages. At the 2019 Women’s World Cup in France, during a critical group stage match against Italy, Sam Kerr — then a rising talent making her mark on international soccer — recreated Cahill’s iconic shadow boxing routine to celebrate one of her goals. The moment paid homage to Cahill’s legacy while signaling the continuity of the tradition across Australia’s men’s and women’s national programs.

    Kerr would go on to rewrite the Australian soccer record books: in 2022, she surpassed Cahill to become the country’s all-time leading international goalscorer, and she led the national women’s side, the Matildas, to a historic semifinal finish at the 2023 Women’s World Cup co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand. Now, the tradition has passed to a new generation of Australian talent, with 20-year-old Nestory Irankunda adding his own name to the lineage.

    On Saturday night, Irankunda made history for Australia’s men’s national team, the Socceroos, during their 2-0 upset win over Turkey. The young winger became the youngest goalscorer in Australian World Cup history, and he marked the milestone by paying direct tribute to the man who inspired his soccer journey from childhood. Just like Cahill 20 years earlier, Irankunda sprinted straight to the nearest corner flag after his goal, throwing a rapid series of punches in a perfect recreation of the iconic celebration that first made the routine famous.

    Unlike his predecessors, Irankunda has already cultivated his own unique set of trademark goal celebrations, from acrobatic backflips to playful Michael Jackson-inspired dance moves that have become a defining part of his on-pitch persona. Even so, the young star made clear that Cahill has been the biggest influence on his career to date.

    “Tim Cahill was my biggest inspiration in Australian football, and I look up to him,” Irankunda told reporters after the match when asked about his decision to replicate the celebration. “I look up to him and I want to be like him one day and I’m really really proud of myself to get the goal.”

    Like many young Australian soccer talents, Irankunda launched his professional career domestically, spending three seasons competing in the A-League with Adelaide United before earning a move to European soccer. In 2025, he completed a permanent transfer to English Championship club Watford, where he is continuing to develop his game ahead of future international and club competitions.

  • AP Exclusive: Nvidia’s Jensen Huang says society needs ‘new social norms’ in the age of AI

    AP Exclusive: Nvidia’s Jensen Huang says society needs ‘new social norms’ in the age of AI

    SHERMAN, Texas — As the leader of the firm that ignited the global artificial intelligence boom, Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang laid out a comprehensive vision for AI’s integration into modern life Tuesday during an exclusive interview with the Associated Press, arguing that widespread embrace of the transformative technology will deliver broad societal benefits while calling for deliberate adaptation to new norms and targeted regulation.

    Huang, whose company’s explosive growth fueled by AI demand has pushed its market capitalization past $5 trillion to make it the world’s most valuable publicly traded company, has long voiced unbridled optimism about AI’s ability to reshape economies and accelerate scientific discovery. But as public anxiety grows over the technology’s potential harms — from mass layoffs to existential safety risks — the industry’s most prominent executive has stepped forward to address critics, pushing back against fears while acknowledging the need for proactive change.

    “We need to create new social norms,” Huang said during the interview. “I would advocate that everybody use AI. Just go engage it.”

    His remarks come at a moment when AI has become a contentious political flashpoint across the United States. Communities have pushed back against plans to build new AI-focused data centers over environmental and infrastructure concerns, while workers across sectors worry that rapid adoption will leave millions jobless without adequate social safety nets. These growing concerns have eroded public support for the technology even as the U.S. faces intensifying AI competition with China — a race Huang says the U.S. can only win by maintaining an open, globally engaged approach to AI development.

    Huang pushed back against narratives that AI will leave non-technical workers behind, noting that the technology has already narrowed the digital divide by enabling people without coding or software development skills to complete complex tasks ranging from website design and dense document analysis to cutting-edge scientific research and home renovation planning.

    Drawing a historical parallel to the introduction of automobiles, Huang argued society will adapt to AI just as it adjusted to the new technology of a century ago. “Cars were once portrayed as killing children, but the world changed its norms by having sidewalks and crosswalks and stopping kids from playing in the streets,” he explained, framing current anxiety as a natural part of integrating a transformative new technology.

    On the topic of regulation, Huang acknowledged that targeted government oversight and baseline safety standards are necessary, stressing that national security must remain a top priority for a technology that has been a key driver of recent U.S. stock market gains and economic growth.

    He voiced skepticism over a recent cross-ideology proposal that would have the U.S. government take equity stakes in AI companies to ensure the public broadly shares in the sector’s windfall profits, an idea floated by former and current President Donald Trump, independent Sen. Bernie Sanders, and even OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Huang noted that American companies already deliver broad benefits to the public through multiple channels: “Their success benefits the stock price, of which many Americans are investors in. It generates taxes, which helps many Americans. It creates a lot of jobs.” He added that growth in the AI sector also lifts profits for connected industries including energy, construction and hardware manufacturing, meaning Americans already hold a natural stake in AI firms’ success across the economy.

    Huang addressed the Trump administration’s recent shift toward stricter AI regulation, including new export controls on Anthropic’s latest AI models that forced the company to suspend public access to the tools, and a new executive order requiring voluntary government screening of high-impact AI models before release. He agreed that national security must be the top priority for all emerging technologies, but called for clear, targeted policy: “you have to be very specific about the risk that you’re concerned about, before setting up policies for export controls.”

    This is not Huang’s first run-in with AI export controls: during the Biden administration, Nvidia pushed back against restrictions on chip sales to China, rejecting the argument that a ban would protect U.S. AI advantages. Huang warned at the time that broad restrictions would undermine the development of a global U.S.-led AI ecosystem, as China would respond by accelerating development of its own advanced chips.

    Huang also identified energy supply as one of the most critical vulnerabilities for U.S. AI development, noting that AI training and inference data centers require massive amounts of electricity that risks straining the national power grid and raising household utility costs. “The United States is woefully behind in energy production,” he said. “We just suffocated energy production for too long.” Without expanded energy output, he warned, the U.S. will struggle to capitalize on its leading position in AI chips, models and infrastructure. Huang complimented Trump’s policy of expanding domestic fossil fuel production, declining to comment on Trump’s rejection of large-scale solar and wind energy development.

    The interview took place during a visit to Sherman, Texas, for the expansion of a Coherent factory building new laser systems that transmit data between chips, a technology that could cut AI power consumption by as much as 50%.

    Huang’s close public friendship with Trump has drawn criticism from Democrats, and Huang shed new light on how the relationship began. The pair first connected last year, when Huang was in South Florida to accept the Edison Achievement Award for his work on AI, and Trump invited him and his wife Lori to dinner at his Mar-a-Lago private club. “He was incredibly engaging, incredibly charismatic, conversational, asked a lot of questions,” Huang recalled of the meeting. “From the moment that I met him, the only thing that he’s ever talked to me about is creating more jobs, reindustrializing the United States, protecting national security, winning.” Huang added that Trump often calls him unexpectedly to discuss policy around these priorities, and arranged for Huang to be picked up by Air Force One in Alaska during Trump’s recent state visit to China.

    Sen. Elizabeth Warren was among the Democratic critics who attacked Huang for declining to testify before a Senate panel while attending the high-profile Mar-a-Lago dinner, which reportedly had a $1 million per person admission price. Huang pushed back on the political criticism, noting that he supports presidential success regardless of party affiliation: “We could differ with politics, but we should want him to succeed. Because when President Trump succeeds, our country succeeds.”

    Huang also reaffirmed that AI’s long-term impact will be overwhelmingly positive, arguing that full engagement with the technology rather than fear-driven restriction will position the U.S. to lead the world in delivering shared growth and progress.

  • Is China sleepwalking down Japan’s zombie economy path?

    Is China sleepwalking down Japan’s zombie economy path?

    Decades after Japan’s 1990 asset bubble collapse left a legacy of unprofitable “zombie” firms propped up by cheap bank lending, mounting economic data suggests China could be walking down a very similar path after its 2021 real estate slowdown. While broad comparisons between 1990s Japan and 2020s China often overlook critical structural differences between the two economies, experts say the pattern of debt evergreening that dragged Japan into decades of stagnation is now visible in China’s financial system.

    The case of Japan’s Daiei, once the nation’s top retail giant, illustrates how the zombie company cycle plays out. After the bubble burst, Daiei slipped into sustained unprofitability, but Japanese major banks including UFJ kept the firm afloat with repeated below-market-rate loans. This practice, dubbed “evergreening”, let banks avoid classifying outstanding debt as non-performing (NPL), hiding bad assets from regulators and the public to meet capital requirements and avoid public backlash. Eventually acquired by rival Aeon, Daiei’s brand is set to be fully phased out in the coming years, decades after it first became insolvent.

    A landmark 2008 paper by economists Caballero, Hoshi, and Kashyap found that this widespread evergreening dragged down Japan’s entire economy for decades. When the bubble burst, hundreds of profitable firms across construction, retail, and trade became unprofitable. Rather than force these firms into bankruptcy and accept their own losses, banks extended new cheap loans to let unprofitable firms pay off old debt, reclassifying bad debt as performing. This locked up scarce capital, labor, and other resources in unproductive firms, blocking healthy new companies from accessing the resources they needed to grow. Even with government backing to keep lending alive, the misallocation of resources left Japan stuck in long-term productivity stagnation.

    Japanese policymakers chose this path for clear sociopolitical reasons: at the time, the country had a strong norm of lifetime job security, and widespread corporate failures would have thrown millions out of work, raising the risk of social unrest. Bank bailouts were also deeply unpopular, so regulators chose regulatory forbearance and capital injections for banks rather than forcing them to clean up their balance sheets by cutting off zombie borrowers.

    Today, China faces a similar post-bubble moment. After the 2021 correction in its overheated real estate sector, the country has seen a broad economic slowdown that is deeper than official figures indicate, and a sharp rise in the share of loss-making firms across real estate-linked sectors. Multiple independent analyses show signs of widespread debt evergreening that mirror 1990s Japan.

    Data from the Rhodium Group shows that despite a rising share of unprofitable firms since 2021, the official share of non-performing loans has actually fallen. A 2025 audit from China’s National Audit Office found that 16 out of 43 audited Chinese banks had actual non-performing loan levels double their officially reported figures. Loan rollovers to avoid NPL classification are pervasive, with the Chinese financial system acting as a shock absorber to keep unprofitable firms afloat and prevent widespread defaults. Rhodium Group data also shows the share of bank loans issued below benchmark interest rates has risen sharply since 2021, even as benchmark rates have fallen, and analysis from the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas confirms that a growing share of Chinese firms, particularly in real estate, do not earn enough to cover their loan interest payments.

    Critics argue that unlike market-based Japan, China’s state-directed banking system can avoid the downsides of zombie lending, since bad debt is effectively backed by the central government, which can order banks to keep lending indefinitely. But analysts point out this does not solve the core resource misallocation problem that hurt Japan, and China’s own government already took similar actions to Japan’s in the wake of the bust: supporting banks and encouraging them to keep lending to unprofitable firms to avoid unrest.

    Even if the government can avoid a financial crisis, zombie firms still lock up critical resources that healthy firms could use. They compete for skilled labor, raw materials, land, and energy, driving up costs and crowding out innovative new entrants. For example, 1990s Japan’s Daiei was able to underprice new competitors thanks to cheap bank loans, blocking retail sector innovation for decades. In China today, this dynamic may be driving widespread industrial involution: after the real estate slowdown, the Chinese government directed banks to increase lending to manufacturing and green tech sectors as part of its industrial policy strategy. While many of these firms are efficient and globally competitive, as much as 30% of listed firms in high-priority sectors including electric vehicles, solar panels, and batteries are zombies that cannot service their debt, kept alive by loan rollovers and local government subsidies to preserve jobs and tax revenue. These unprofitable firms cut prices to below production cost to hold market share, crushing profit margins across the entire sector for even the most efficient competitors.

    While this flood of cheap exports has helped China gain global market share in key industrial sectors, it comes at a long-term cost to domestic productivity growth. Over time, persistent resource misallocation could erode China’s long-term competitiveness, rather than strengthen it. The practice may also be adding to fiscal risks: just as Japan’s zombie lending left the country with unsustainable government debt that is now causing currency weakness and inflation, China’s evergreening practice pushes the cost of unproductive firms onto taxpayers and domestic bondholders, creating long-term fiscal pressures that the government will eventually have to address.

    In an update addressing reader questions about geopolitical differences between Japan and China, author Noah Smith notes that China’s government shares Japan’s core motivation for zombie lending: fear of social unrest from widespread unemployment, which has remained a top policy priority in China after the end of rapid growth. While China’s goal of reshaping global supply chains means it will continue to support unprofitable firms in strategic sectors, this will only deepen the productivity trap over time. Ultimately, while many structural differences separate the two economies, the parallel of zombie lending and debt evergreening is clear — and so far, China’s government appears to be stepping into the same long-term trap that stunted Japan’s growth for decades.

  • Smotrich cancels Hebron Protocol, ending Palestinian control in occupied city

    Smotrich cancels Hebron Protocol, ending Palestinian control in occupied city

    On a Monday earlier this year, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich made a provocative announcement that sent shockwaves across the occupied West Bank: the decades-old Hebron Agreements, a core component of the 1990s Oslo Accords peace framework, are formally canceled. The move immediately strips the Palestinian-administered Hebron Municipality of all its legal authority over construction and urban planning across large swathes of the occupied city, transferring full control to the Israeli state.

    Speaking at an inauguration ceremony for a new illegal Israeli settlement outpost in the southern Mount Hebron region, Smotrich framed the cancellation as a long-overdue correction, claiming that for decades, planning powers for Jewish settlements in Hebron had absurdly rested with what he called Hebron’s “terror municipality.” The policy change was not a spontaneous announcement: following months of advocacy led by Smotrich, Israel’s security cabinet approved the measure in principle back in February, and the country’s Higher Planning Council — the governing body that oversees all construction in occupied West Bank territories — gave the decision final approval on the same night of Smotrich’s public announcement.

    The Hebron Protocol, originally signed in 1997 by then-Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and late Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat as an extension of the Oslo Accords, established a split governance structure for the contested city. The larger H1 zone, covering roughly 80% of Hebron’s total territory, was placed under the full civil control of the Palestinian Authority. The smaller H2 zone, which encompasses Hebron’s historic Old City, the revered Ibrahimi Mosque (a site holy to both Muslims and Jews), and multiple southern residential neighborhoods, was designated to remain under exclusive Israeli military control, while the Palestinian municipality retained planning and construction jurisdiction for Palestinian communities and holy sites within the zone.

    Smotrich’s cancellation of the protocol erases that long-standing arrangement, meaning even planning and development projects at the Ibrahimi Mosque now fall outside Palestinian municipal jurisdiction. The site has already been a decades-long flashpoint of tension: shortly after the protocol was signed, illegal Israeli settlers seized control of roughly half of the mosque compound, and the site remains a top target for settler takeover efforts.

    Earlier this year, the Israeli military had already begun rolling back Palestinian control of the holy site, issuing a 15-day entry ban that barred the mosque’s director Mu’taz Abu Sneineh and its head custodian Hammam Abu Murkhiya from accessing the compound. Local observers have widely interpreted this sequence of moves as a deliberate effort to shift full control of the Ibrahimi Mosque from the Palestinian Hebron Municipality to the settler religious council of the nearby illegal Kiryat Arba settlement.

    For more than 25 years, Israel has enforced a tight closure on the roughly one-square-kilometer area surrounding the Ibrahimi Mosque, installing more than 120 permanent checkpoints and access gates to restrict Palestinian movement. The closed zone is home to approximately 7,000 Palestinian residents, alongside multiple established illegal Israeli settlement outposts.

    In recent months, Israeli forces have ramped up military operations across occupied Hebron, carrying out frequent raids on Palestinian residential neighborhoods, imposing multi-day consecutive curfews, blocking Palestinian access to work and commercial spaces, and deploying military vehicles and bulldozers to seal off neighborhood entrances. During these curfews, high-profile Israeli far-right officials regularly enter the occupied city under heavy military protection. Just one week before Smotrich’s announcement, far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir led a heavily guarded military convoy through Hebron’s streets in a deliberate show of force.

    Local Palestinian residents say the string of recent escalations and the cancellation of the Hebron Protocol are part of a clear, long-term strategy: to expand illegal Israeli settlement outposts across Hebron, connect isolated outposts into contiguous blocs of Israeli control, and permanently entrench a dominant settler presence across the entire southern occupied West Bank.

    The controversial move comes as Smotrich faces potential international legal consequences for his actions in the occupied territories. Independent outlet Middle East Eye has confirmed that prosecutors at the International Criminal Court based in The Hague submitted an application for an arrest warrant for Smotrich back in April. The warrant application charges Smotrich with multiple crimes under international law, including forced displacement classified as a crime against humanity and war crime, the transfer of Israel’s own civilian population into occupied territory — a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention classified as a war crime — and charges of persecution and apartheid as crimes against humanity.

  • Little Algeria – the Kansas city taking a World Cup team to its heart

    Little Algeria – the Kansas city taking a World Cup team to its heart

    As the 2026 FIFA World Cup unfolds across the United States, one unexpected heartwarming story has emerged from Lawrence, a quiet mid-sized city of 100,000 in the state of Kansas, which has become an unlikely home away from home for the Algerian national men’s football team.

    When the Algerian Football Federation confirmed in February that it would base its World Cup preparations in Lawrence, city tourism officials immediately began planning the warmest welcome possible. Explore Lawrence, the city’s official tourism board, launched extensive community outreach efforts to turn the entire city into a supportive home for the squad, a milestone event for a community that has never hosted an international World Cup team before.

    In the weeks leading up to the team’s arrival, organizers hosted “Soccer 101” workshops for local residents. Beyond teaching the basic rules of international football (distinct from the American football the region is famous for), the sessions also introduced locals to Algerian culture, history and fan traditions, building a foundation of connection beyond sport.

    When the Algerian players finally rolled into Lawrence, hundreds of cheering local fans lined the routes to greet them. That excitement translated into a packed community training session at Rock Chalk Park, where squad members took time to interact with local youth football players, swapping tips and posing for photos.

    The warm embrace extends far beyond official city events. With a large Algerian diaspora community settled just 40 miles away outside Kansas City, Missouri, daily streams of Algerian supporters travel to Lawrence to catch a glimpse of their favorite players. Many local residents have opened their private homes to traveling fans: Ruth DeWitt, Explore Lawrence’s community relations director, has hosted Minneapolis-based Algerian supporter Wassini Souarit in her house for the entire duration of the tournament.

    “There were so many challenges for Algerians to travel here, and we just adopted them as our home team,” DeWitt explained. “Of course we’re rooting for the USA, but we’re rooting for Algeria just as much because we are so happy that they chose Lawrence as their base camp. That’s exactly what the World Cup is about. Until you experience it for yourself, you have absolutely no idea how powerful that connection really is.”

    Local businesses have also leaned into the welcoming spirit, with many local restaurants adjusting their menus to offer halal options for players and visiting fans. Algerian national flags now line downtown streets and storefronts, turning the whole city bright green and white ahead of Algeria’s opening Group Stage match against defending champions Argentina, scheduled to kick off Tuesday at the Kansas City Chiefs’ NFL home stadium.

    Renowned 76-year-old earthworks artist Stan Herd even created a large-scale tribute to the Algerian team on the University of Kansas campus: a giant, full-color reproduction of the Algerian national flag that can only be viewed in full from the roof of the campus’s tallest building. “This town is really embracing this moment as much for our visitors as for ourselves,” Herd said. “I think it’s a pretty welcoming state, but we’re beginning to love football more than [American] football.”

    For Herd and the wider Lawrence community, hosting Algeria is about far more than a few weeks of World Cup. It is an opportunity to showcase midwestern hospitality to the world, and bridge divides between neighbors that have lived alongside each other for years without connecting. “A lot of people, through an effort like this, make common cause with their neighbours that they may have passed by for years,” Herd noted. “Now that we’re all on the same team now trying to show and present ourselves in the best way we can. We see this is a very great opportunity to show how Kansans welcome the world.”