Global Pulse

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  • Wildfire haze hangs over eastern US — and World Cup final

    Wildfire haze hangs over eastern US — and World Cup final

    A thick, acrid blanket of wildfire smoke drifted south from raging Canadian blazes to engulf much of the eastern United States on Saturday, creating dangerous air quality conditions across major population centers and casting uncertainty over the 2026 FIFA World Cup final scheduled for Sunday at an open-air New Jersey stadium located just across the Hudson River from New York City.

    As of Saturday morning, official data from the Canadian Wildland Fire Information System confirmed that more than 950 active wildfires were still burning uncontrolled across vast swathes of Canadian territory. The persistent wind patterns pushed plumes of toxic smoke across the U.S.-Canada border, triggering public health alerts from New England down to the Mid-Atlantic and into parts of the Midwest. By midday Saturday, global air quality tracker IQAir recorded that New York City had topped its list of the world’s most polluted major cities, with neighboring Toronto and Washington, D.C. ranking just behind the U.S. megacity.

    At MetLife Stadium, the venue for the highly anticipated final between Argentina and Spain, tournament officials confirmed they are closely monitoring the evolving air quality situation. Andrew Giuliani, executive director of the White House World Cup task force, shared the update during a press briefing Saturday. Across the river in New York City, the iconic skyline was completely obscured by dense grey haze, and most people venturing outdoors wore protective face masks to avoid inhaling the toxic fumes.

    Public officials across the region have issued urgent advisories urging residents to limit outdoor activity. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani called on locals to stay indoors and avoid unnecessary travel, warning that incoming weather systems bring both a potential end to the haze and new hazards. “Thunderstorms are expected to bring damaging winds strong enough to down trees and power lines, along with heavy rainfall that could cause flash flooding,” Mamdani posted on the social platform X. The U.S. National Weather Service echoed that warning, noting that the smoky conditions would persist across the region through Saturday afternoon, with the heavy storm system only expected to clear the area by evening.

    In Washington, D.C., the Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management warned that air quality levels remained “unhealthy for at-risk groups” including children, the elderly and people with preexisting respiratory conditions, urging residents in the capital to cut down on extended time outdoors.

    Meteorologists noted that the incoming Saturday evening storms could deliver a partial reprieve: the heavy rainfall is expected to pull much of the suspended smoke particles out of the atmosphere, clearing the haze in time for Sunday’s match. But the same storm system carries significant risks of flash flooding and dangerous wind gusts that have already prompted flash flood warnings across the Northeast.

    The crisis has already sparked political controversy, with U.S. President Donald Trump placing full blame on Canadian authorities for the cross-border pollution. Trump accused Canada of “willful negligence” for “not properly maintaining” its forested lands, and threatened to impose new additional tariffs on Canadian imports in response to the crisis.

    Climate policy and public health advocates, however, have emphasized a broader root cause: repeated transboundary wildfire smoke events across North America are directly linked to human-caused climate change, which has created hotter, drier conditions across the Canadian boreal forest that increase the frequency and severity of extreme wildfire seasons.

  • Ukrainian strikes on Russian warehouses kill 8, shroud skies in smoke

    Ukrainian strikes on Russian warehouses kill 8, shroud skies in smoke

    In a sharp escalation of cross-border hostilities between Russia and Ukraine, waves of explosive-laden Ukrainian drones targeted key logistics facilities belonging to Russia’s largest e-commerce retailer Wildberries across the Moscow and Tambov regions on Saturday, leaving eight people dead and triggering massive infernos that filled the sky with thick, dark smoke for hours.

    The deadly attack marks a new phase in Ukraine’s months-long campaign of deep strikes into Russian territory, which Kyiv frames as justified retribution for more than four years of continuous Russian bombardment across Ukrainian soil. Dubbed “long-range sanctions” by Ukrainian officials, this campaign has previously focused heavily on Russia’s energy infrastructure, contributing to widespread fuel disruptions in one of the world’s top oil-producing nations.

    Saturday’s strikes specifically hit two core Wildberries warehouses, claiming the lives of eight night-shift workers and leaving both facilities nearly completely destroyed by fire. Wildberries CEO Tatiana Kim voiced profound grief over the incident, saying, “A terrible night, terrible events for our company and for our country. It is a pain that cannot be put into words.”

    An Agence France-Presse journalist on the ground observed dense black smoke billowing over the Moscow region from early Saturday morning, with the plume lingering until at least late afternoon. Evgeny Pervyshov, governor of the Tambov region located roughly 500 kilometers southeast of Moscow, confirmed seven night-shift employees were killed when an enemy drone struck the local Wildberries logistics center. In the Moscow region, where a second Wildberries warehouse and an adjacent oil depot were hit, regional governor Andrei Vorobyov announced one additional fatality after a wounded person died in hospital.

    As of Saturday evening, firefighters continued to battle the remaining blaze in Elektrostal, the Moscow town where the warehouse is located, while the fire in Tambov had already been fully extinguished. Vorobyov added that an empty kindergarten in Elektrostal was also damaged in the strike, though no additional casualties were reported at that site. Regional health officials confirmed that nearly 60 people sustained injuries in the coordinated attacks and were transported to local hospitals for treatment.

    Sergei Sobyanin, mayor of Moscow, released details of the unprecedented scale of the overnight drone assault, stating that more than 360 drones were launched toward the Moscow region alone. He added that between July 11 and July 18, Russian air defense systems intercepted nearly 1,900 Ukrainian drones bound for the capital.

    In a public post on X confirming the attack, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy framed the strike as a direct response to Russian attacks on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure. “In response to Russian strikes on our civilian infrastructure and on our cities and communities, two major logistics facilities were hit — in the Moscow and Tambov regions,” he wrote. Zelenskyy also alleged that the targeted warehouses were being used to store sanctioned components for Russian drone production and navigation equipment.

    The escalation comes amid a broader spike in cross-border hostilities: on the same day as the Wildberries strikes, Russian bombardment of the Ukrainian Black Sea port city of Odesa left one civilian dead and 13 others wounded, as Russian forces continue to ramp up attacks on key Ukrainian port infrastructure.

    Ukraine’s sustained campaign of strikes on Russian oil infrastructure has disrupted daily life across Russia more dramatically than at any previous point in the ongoing conflict. Data shows that fuel shortages have impacted nearly 90 percent of Russian regions since June, forcing long lines at petrol stations across the country — a marked shift from the pre-strike era, when fuel was consistently abundant and far cheaper in Russia than in most of Western Europe.

    Meanwhile, frontline fighting between the two sides remains largely deadlocked, with Ukrainian defenses slowing Russia’s planned summer offensive to a near standstill. Diplomatic efforts led by the United States to negotiate a end to the conflict remain stalled, as Washington has shifted its foreign policy focus to ongoing tensions with Iran.

  • German politician resigns over surrogacy child controversy

    German politician resigns over surrogacy child controversy

    A leading German center-right politician has stepped down from his top parliamentary role following widespread backlash over his use of an international surrogate to welcome a new child, a practice he and his party have long banned domestically.

    Forty-six-year-old Jens Spahn, a senior figure in the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and former parliamentary group leader for Germany’s governing coalition, confirmed earlier this week that he and his husband Daniel Funke had become first-time parents via a surrogate based in the United States. The announcement immediately ignited fierce cross-party criticism, even from within Spahn’s own CDU, over accusations of blatant hypocrisy: surrogacy is strictly prohibited under Germany’s 1990 Embryo Protection Act, a policy that both the CDU and Spahn personally have repeatedly supported for decades.

    Under German law, anyone facilitating commercial surrogacy within the country faces up to three years of prison or substantial fines. While raising a child born via surrogacy abroad is not illegal in Germany, the CDU reaffirmed its unwavering support for the full domestic ban as recently as February 2025, arguing that the prohibition prevents the exploitation of women and stops surrogacy from being turned into a profit-driven commercial industry. Critics have also highlighted Spahn’s long public record of opposing surrogacy legalization: during his tenure as German Health Minister in 2020, he rejected calls from the liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP) to loosen the country’s surrogacy restrictions, and as early as 2015, he wrote publicly that “as a gay man and a Christian I find it personally very hard to warm to the idea of a rented womb”.

    In an official statement released Saturday, Spahn said he had concluded that his new personal happiness as a parent was fundamentally incompatible with his high-profile political position. “The balancing act between my private decision to have a child through surrogacy and the understandable expectations placed on me as Chairman of our parliamentary group has become greater than I anticipated,” he wrote. Spahn also called for more empathy in public discourse, noting that the “increasing relentlessness in public discourse” had forced him to reflect deeply on his position.

    CDU leader and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz publicly backed Spahn’s resignation, calling the decision “right” and “inevitable.” “Credibility is the highest asset in politics,” Merz posted on social media, confirming that the party would immediately launch the process of selecting a permanent replacement for Spahn’s role. Until a permanent successor is appointed, Alexander Hoffmann, leader of the CDU’s Bavarian sister party the Christian Social Union (CSU) parliamentary group, will take over Spahn’s duties on an interim basis. Hoffmann said that Spahn’s choice “deserves the utmost respect,” though many within the party have maintained that the resignation was unavoidable.

    Prior to Spahn’s announcement, senior CDU politician Daniel Peters from the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania told German tabloid *Bild* that Spahn’s position had become “no longer tenable,” arguing that it was fundamentally wrong for a senior lawmaker to act one way privately while upholding a conflicting policy as an elected official.

    The controversy comes as European nations remain deeply divided over surrogacy policy. Like Germany, Italy, France and Spain all enforce domestic bans on commercial surrogacy. Just this month, France’s highest court, the Court of Cassation, ruled that children born to surrogates abroad must be legally recognized as the children of their intended parents. In contrast, Italy’s right-wing government led by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni passed a law in 2024 that criminalizes Italian residents pursuing surrogacy even outside the country’s borders. For thousands of German couples, both same-sex and heterosexual, who cannot conceive children on their own, surrogacy abroad has become one of the only accessible paths to building a family.

  • Brazil’s top court denies request for Argentina’s Milei to visit Bolsonaro under house arrest

    Brazil’s top court denies request for Argentina’s Milei to visit Bolsonaro under house arrest

    BRASILIA, Brazil — In a high-stakes ruling that underscores deep political divides across South America, a Brazilian Supreme Court justice has formally blocked a planned visit by Argentine President Javier Milei to imprisoned former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who is currently serving a sentence for his role in a 2022 coup attempt.

    The request for the visit, which was scheduled to take place July 25 in Brazil’s capital Brasilia, was submitted by Bolsonaro’s legal team and rejected late Friday, according to official court documents. Justice Alexandre de Moraes, the judge overseeing the high-profile coup trial that resulted in Bolsonaro’s conviction and 27-plus year prison sentence, made clear in his ruling that the proposed meeting falls outside the parameters of allowed visits for the former leader.

    De Moraes emphasized that Bolsonaro has already been prohibited from receiving any visits that fall under a “political-electoral nature,” a restriction that applies to Milei’s planned trip. The Argentine president’s visit to Brazil was already tied to a key political event on the calendar: Milei is set to attend a national convention for Brazil’s right-wing Liberal Party in Sao Paulo, where the party is expected to formally confirm Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro — Jair Bolsonaro’s eldest son — as its presidential candidate challenging incumbent left-wing President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in next year’s election.

    The blocked visit also brings to the surface long-running tensions between Lula and Milei. Lula, a veteran left-wing leader, has maintained decades-long close alliances with Argentine politicians who are ideological opponents of Milei, including former Argentine Presidents Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and Alberto Fernández. The frosty dynamic between the two current heads of state has added another layer of political sensitivity to the proposed meeting.

    This ruling is not without precedent, either. Back in March, de Moraes issued an identical rejection to a visit request from Darren Beattie, a conservative U.S. State Department official who holds the post of undersecretary for public diplomacy and public affairs during the second Trump administration. Beattie had also sought to meet with Bolsonaro in prison, a request the justice turned down for similar reasons related to the former president’s political activity restrictions.

  • Former Spain defender Capdevila asks Trump for help getting into the US for the World Cup final

    Former Spain defender Capdevila asks Trump for help getting into the US for the World Cup final

    MADRID — A decorated Spanish football legend is making a public plea for help, scrambling to secure entry into the United States in time to watch his national team take on Argentina in Sunday’s highly anticipated World Cup final at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium. Former Spain national team defender Joan Capdevila, who was a key part of Spain’s only men’s World Cup title win in 2010 and their 2008 European Championship triumph, has found himself locked out of the U.S. due to a long-standing travel restriction, stemming from a single exhibition match he played in Iran more than a decade ago.

    Capdevila took to the social platform X on Friday night to launch his public appeal, directly tagging former U.S. President Donald Trump, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Spain’s national ministry of sport in a bid to cut through red tape. “I NEED HELP @realDonaldTrump!” Capdevila wrote, confirming that his application for visa-free entry through the U.S. Electronic System for Travel Authorization, commonly known as ESTA, had been formally rejected.

    For 48-year-old Capdevila, being at Sunday’s final is far more than a casual spectator trip: he hopes to reunite with all of his 2010 World Cup-winning teammates in the stands to cheer on the current generation of La Roja as they chase the sport’s biggest global prize. The barrier to his entry traces back to 2010s, when Capdevila joined a squad of Spanish La Liga legends for an exhibition all-star match against a team of Iranian top players in Tehran.

    Under current U.S. visa waiver program rules, which allow pre-screened travelers from eligible countries to enter the U.S. without a full visa via ESTA, travelers who have visited Iran after March 1, 2011 are explicitly barred from ESTA eligibility. Any traveler in that category is required to apply for a formal visitor visa through U.S. consular offices before entering the country, a process that often takes weeks or months to complete — too slow for Capdevila to get approval in time for Sunday’s match. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which oversees both the visa waiver program and the ESTA system, has been contacted for comment on Capdevila’s case as of Friday.

  • Mali rebels ambush an army convoy, killing or capturing scores of soldiers

    Mali rebels ambush an army convoy, killing or capturing scores of soldiers

    In a coordinated pre-planned assault that underscores the growing security crisis in the Sahel, an alliance of jihadi militants and Tuareg separatist fighters ambushed a Malian military convoy in Mali’s violence-plagued northern region on Saturday, with rebel spokespeople confirming dozens of government troops were either killed or taken prisoner. The attack, which took place in a remote stretch of the Gao region, has been officially confirmed by Mali’s national military, which issued a brief statement confirming the assault on the convoy carrying Malian soldiers and their foreign allies. The military declined to release further details on casualties or damage, noting only that a counteroffensive against the armed groups is currently ongoing.

    Two separate groups have independently claimed joint responsibility for the operation: Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), the regional al-Qaeda affiliate active across the Sahel, and the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA), a unified Tuareg separatist movement formed in 2024 to push for an independent Azawad state in northern Mali. In their public statements, both groups confirmed that the targeted convoy included members of Mali’s regular military alongside personnel from Russia’s Africa Corps, the paramilitary force that has propped up Mali’s ruling junta since the country cut ties with United Nations peacekeeping forces in 2020.

    FLA spokesperson Mohamed Elmaouloud Ramadane outlined the details of the assault in a press statement, noting that the convoy was traveling from the northern outpost of Anefis toward the regional capital of Gao when the attack unfolded in the open Sahara Desert. Observers have identified the convoy as a likely logistics support unit, as visible fuel tankers accompanying the column indicate it was moving supplies to forward government positions. Ramadane added that multiple army vehicles, including armored vehicles, were destroyed in the ambush, while other working vehicles were seized by the alliance.

    The rebel alliance has released multiple videos purportedly documenting the aftermath of the attack. The footage, which has not been independently verified by The Associated Press, shows captured Malian soldiers surrendering while surrounded by rebel fighters, as well as armed rebels transporting detainees in their own vehicles. One clip shows rebels opening fire on a group of soldiers lying on the ground, confirming the heavy violence of the assault.

    This attack marks the latest in a growing pattern of coordinated operations between the once ideologically opposed JNIM and FLA, a partnership that regional security analysts warn poses a severe threat to Mali’s fragile stability and the authority of its military junta, which has ruled the country since a 2020 coup. Mali, a landlocked nation at the heart of the Sahel, a vast semi-arid belt stretching across Africa south of the Sahara, has become the global epicenter of Islamist extremist violence over the past decade. Tuareg separatist groups have waged an on-again off-again insurgency for independence since 2012, and the FLA unified multiple separate separatist factions into a single movement earlier this year.

    The April 2024 coordinated assault on Malian forces, the largest such attack in the country in more than 10 years, first signaled the depth of the growing collaboration between JNIM and the FLA. The new ambush adds to a sharp upward trend in militant attacks against government forces across the Sahel, where armed groups are increasingly pushing to expand their territorial control and influence amid a fragmented security landscape.

  • Venezuela earthquakes death toll surpasses 5,000

    Venezuela earthquakes death toll surpasses 5,000

    CARACAS, Venezuela – Local Venezuelan authorities announced Friday evening that the total number of fatalities from the two powerful seismic events that struck the nation last month has climbed to 5,069. In an official statement from the interim government led by President Delcy Rodriguez, officials confirmed that the count of injured people has held steady at 16,740, a figure that has not changed over the past 11 days.

    Officials attribute the upward adjustment in the death toll to ongoing search, recovery and debris clearance work, which is being carried out across affected regions. The coastal state of La Guaira, located along the Caribbean Sea and the area hardest hit by the tremors, has seen the bulk of the newly recovered fatalities. As of Friday, national geological monitoring agencies had documented a total of 1,331 aftershocks following the initial major quakes.

    According to Venezuelan government data, the magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 quakes that struck on June 24 have left 856 buildings damaged, with another 190 structures completely leveled. Hundreds of critical public infrastructure assets, including transportation routes such as bridges and highways, also sustained damage, disrupting access to many affected communities.

    Full coverage of Latin American and Caribbean regional news is available via AP News at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america.

  • The classroom moment that bonds finalists De la Fuente & Scaloni forever

    The classroom moment that bonds finalists De la Fuente & Scaloni forever

    The 2026 FIFA World Cup final will bring two very different coaching journeys to a head in New Jersey, when Spain’s Luis de la Fuente and Argentina’s Lionel Scaloni go head-to-head for the sport’s most prestigious international prize. Though their paths to the final diverged wildly in every sense, a little-known personal connection binds the two managers together, one that traces all the way back to 2017.

    That year, Scaloni found himself adrift after retiring from playing, and enrolled in the Spanish Football Federation’s UEFA Pro Licence course – the highest-level coaching qualification available in European football. It was here that the two men first crossed paths: De la Fuente, who was then leading Spain’s Under-19 national team, taught the course’s technical skills module. Scaloni went on to graduate with one of the highest marks in his cohort, and has repeatedly credited De la Fuente for providing critical, generous guidance to him and his fellow students. The pair have maintained a close bond in the years since.

    Where De la Fuente is a product of Spain’s structured national youth development system, Scaloni’s coaching ethos was shaped by the unique, unwritten locker-room culture of Argentine club football. What unites them, beyond that 2017 classroom encounter, is that both climbed to the pinnacle of international football after periods where the sport had left them on the margins, and both have built their national sides around the core principle of team as family – values rooted in the shared Catholic faith both men practice. It is an unlikely milestone for two coaches who have never managed a single top-flight club game between them.

    De la Fuente’s journey to the World Cup final began in Haro, the heart of Spain’s Rioja wine country famous for its annual chaotic wine battle where thousands drench each other in red wine. After hanging up his playing boots in 1994, he spent 15 years bouncing between lower league club roles, youth coaching positions and assistant coaching jobs. He was dismissed from his role as manager of Segunda División side Deportivo Alaves in 2011, and spent 18 months out of work, slowly drifting away from the sport he dedicated his life to.

    His turning point came when he spotted a newspaper advertisement for a youth coaching role with the Spanish Football Federation. He reached out to former Spain manager Inaki Saez, who endorsed him to the federation as the perfect candidate. He was offered a three-month contract to lead Spain’s Under-19 side at the European Championship in Lithuania; while they lost to France in the semi-finals, his performance earned him a permanent spot. His next Under-19 squad, featuring future senior stars Rodri, Unai Simon and Mikel Merino, took home the European title, and a steady rise up the ranks followed. By the time he was appointed senior Spain manager in 2022, he had coached most of the current 2026 World Cup squad since their teenage years, across Under-19, Under-21 and Olympic levels, winning multiple youth titles along the way. He has known star players including Pedri, Dani Olmo and Martin Zubimendi, and their families, for more than a decade.

    De la Fuente’s coaching philosophy centers on fostering respect for opponents, trust in the process, and calm, patient leadership. His life and work are built on sacrifice, humility and collective responsibility – values that mirror his religious beliefs, visible in small, personal gestures. Ahead of the Euro 2024 final, as the stadium filled with fans, he took time to call his family to confirm they had arrived safely. Midway through a World Cup match this year, when he learned the federation’s photographer had lost his mother, he pulled the man into a group hug with the entire squad. And ahead of this tournament’s semi-final against France, he was visibly overcome with emotion when asked about his brother, who passed away three years ago. For De la Fuente, family is the foundation of everything: his own son Alberto now serves on his senior Spain coaching staff.

    In contrast, Scaloni’s coaching education did not come from a federation classroom, but from the decades he spent in Argentine locker rooms, where unwritten hierarchies and norms place senior players’ authority above all else. He grew up in the small farming town of Pujato, near Rosario, where his family still grows corn, wheat and soy, and he learned the game on local fields driven by his father Angel. Scaloni was part of Argentina’s 1997 Under-20 World Cup winning squad alongside Walter Samuel and Pablo Aimar, who now work alongside him as assistant coaches. That tournament also left him with a lifelong fear of flying after a forced landing during the event; for years, while playing for Deportivo La Coruna, he would travel to away matches with the team but drive hundreds of kilometers home alone with his father after the game. He made more than 200 appearances for Deportivo, helped the club win a La Liga title, and went on to play for a string of European clubs, including a loan spell at West Ham United in 2006, before retiring in 2015.

    Retirement hit Scaloni harder than he expected. Having settled in Mallorca with his wife Elisa and their two young children, he struggled to adjust to life off the pitch. He took a job coaching a local under-14 side at small club Son Caliu, just 10 minutes from his home, and stood on the touchline freezing through cold mornings, but found it the first content he had felt since retiring. He has since spoken out in support of every club employing psychologists to help players prepare for the disorientation of post-retirement life.

    Unlike De la Fuente, Scaloni never built a career bouncing between domestic club roles. He became an assistant coach at Sevilla under fellow Argentine Jorge Sampaoli in 2016, and the pair moved to the Argentina national set-up a year later. When Sampaoli was sacked after Argentina’s early exit from the 2018 World Cup in Russia, Scaloni was eventually named interim, then permanent manager – despite widespread public criticism of his lack of top-level experience. He has held the post ever since.

    Scaloni’s greatest strength is not tactical innovation. His coaching staff is made up almost entirely of former teammates and players, who understand that elite international players need less tactical lecturing and more connection. Casual barbecues, team karaoke nights, and deliberately blending superstar status with ordinary, shared moments are the foundation of Argentina’s locker room culture. After leading Argentina to a 2022 World Cup win and a Copa America title, Scaloni began seeing a psychologist himself to process the pressure and emotion of the achievement, compounded by his parents’ illness at the time; long bike rides and therapy helped him navigate that period.

    For both coaches, their sides’ greatest strength is not individual stardom, but the collective trust built through intentional team culture. Former Spanish Football Federation director Fernando Hierro described De la Fuente as “an expert of the raw material there is in Spanish football who has built a family where they enjoy themselves” – a description that fits Scaloni’s Argentina equally well. Both prioritize continuity over upheaval: De la Fuente stuck by the generation of players he nurtured from their teens, while Scaloni retained the core of Messi’s supporting cast even after a devastating semi-final loss to Brazil at the 2019 Copa America. That loyalty paid off just two years later, when Argentina won the 2022 World Cup at the Maracana, securing Messi his first senior international trophy.

    When asked what success with their national team means, both men give nearly identical answers. De la Fuente calls it a privilege to watch “the people of your country enjoy themselves again”, while Scaloni repeatedly emphasizes the effort of fans who follow the team across the world and wait for them back home.

    On final match day, the former teacher and his former student will meet again as rivals. Both know that defeat is an inevitable part of sport. But whoever lifts the trophy, the moment will be a historic one: two men who were once cast aside by football have written their names back into the sport’s biggest story.

  • End-times prophecy jumps from lunatic fringe to US elite belief

    End-times prophecy jumps from lunatic fringe to US elite belief

    Recent revelations about a secretive elite network organized by German-American tech billionaire Peter Thiel have pulled back the curtain on a growing, underreported trend: the spread of apocalyptic, end-times worldviews among the most powerful figures in global politics and technology. Thiel, the co-founder of PayPal and data analytics firm Palantir, has brought together top CEOs, billionaires, and high-ranking political leaders for his closed group called “Dialog,” with confirmed members including NATO Supreme Commander Alexus Grynkewich and former White House senior advisor Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law. This year, Thiel also delivered a series of confidential lectures in San Francisco that framed modern debates over technology and politics through biblical apocalyptic language.

    Thiel has publicly argued that humanity faces existential catastrophe from two sources: nuclear conflict and unregulated, out-of-control artificial intelligence, which he claims could trigger a biblical “Armageddon.” In his framework, only the most innovative and privileged elite — those included in his secret network — would survive such a collapse. Thiel is far from an outlier; a growing share of powerful figures across technology and politics now view global affairs through the lens of imminent civilizational collapse, a shift that is reshaping policy and geopolitics.

    The use of end-times narratives to consolidate political power is not a new phenomenon. Centuries ago, Rome’s first emperor Augustus leveraged fears of moral decay across the empire to justify centralizing all authority in his own hands. But today’s iteration of “end-times politics” differs dramatically from historical precedents. Both real and manufactured threats now spread at unprecedented speeds, amplified by social media algorithms that prioritize outrage, hysteria, and conspiracy theories over nuanced, factual reporting.

    In Silicon Valley circles, AI is routinely framed as either humanity’s savior or its ultimate extinction event. Palantir CEO Alex Karp has gone so far as to call the global race to advance artificial intelligence “our Oppenheimer moment,” arguing that wealthy world powers must choose between halting development of a potentially catastrophic technology or racing ahead to seize a decisive geopolitical advantage.

    Yet this apocalyptic thinking has long since moved beyond the eccentric bubbles of Silicon Valley, embedding itself in the highest halls of formal political power. Political leaders now leverage end-times narratives to advance radical policy agendas, a trend that has been particularly pronounced in the second Trump administration. A large number of active-duty U.S. military personnel have filed official complaints alleging that senior commanders use biblical end-times rhetoric to justify planned U.S. military action against Iran, framing conflict with the country as a necessary precursor to the second coming of Jesus Christ.

    This rhetoric has grown alongside the Trump administration’s deliberate courting of the Christian right, particularly evangelical voters, who form a core constituency for the administration’s “spiritual warfare” agenda. U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has repeatedly positioned himself as a divine instrument in an existential civilizational battle to defend Christianity, and senior administration officials have systematically stacked Pentagon and other executive department roles with evangelical Christians and Christian Zionists. This pattern forms part of a broader ideological shift, where leading political and business figures blend their interpretations of Christian eschatology with beliefs about American global supremacy.

    The tangible consequences of this apocalyptic myth-making are already visible in U.S. foreign and domestic policy. Trump’s stark threats against Iran — including an April statement warning that “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again” — illustrate how end-times framing paves the way for radical, high-stakes policy shifts, both in the U.S. and across the globe. The Trump administration has also pushed the narrative that Europe faces irreversible continental decline and “civilizational erasure” driven by immigration and European integration, echoing similar rhetoric from right-wing leaders across the West. Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, for example, has repeatedly warned that the United Kingdom is on the brink of “societal collapse” driven by immigration and progressive policy change.

    Decades of social science research confirm that when populations believe they face an existential threat, they are far more willing to support extreme, extraordinary measures that would be rejected in ordinary times. Research also shows that the personal psychological dispositions of political leaders carry far more weight during periods of widespread uncertainty. The rapid, unforeseen changes brought by technological transformation and climate disruption have already created widespread public anxiety, and this creates a dangerous opening: leaders can frame political opponents, grassroots social movements, and marginalized minority groups as existential “foes” to justify consolidation of power and crackdowns on dissent.

    Modern end-times politics is ultimately a battle to define what counts as the ultimate threat facing humanity. In an era where the world faces a growing list of tangible, evidence-based risks, these elite apocalyptic worldviews will shape how both national and global politics evolve in the coming decades. This shift is compounded by another critical change to global power structures: for most of modern history, the most influential actors in global politics were elected officials and state institutional leaders. Today, a new class of unelected tech executives, armed with massive personal wealth and outsized media influence, exercise unprecedented power over state policy. Their influence often penetrates deep into the core of state institutions, exemplified by Elon Musk’s senior role leading the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency and SpaceX’s centrality to U.S. global defense and space strategy.

    For decades, political scholars analyzed global politics through the lens of formal institutions and structural power dynamics, and framed globalization as a product of cross-border business interests. Today, however, the future of both global governance and the global economy increasingly hinges on the personal beliefs and psychological outlooks of a small, unaccountable elite of political and corporate leaders.

    This elite apocalyptic framing often involves selective emphasis on certain threats while deliberately downplaying others. Many tech executives tie the promise of a prosperous, stable future exclusively to unconstrained, disruptive technological innovation. U.S. venture capitalist Marc Andreessen is a leading proponent of “technological accelerationism,” an ideology that argues unregulated, rapid technological development is the only viable solution to all of the world’s most pressing existential problems.

    The core challenge for the public and policymakers today is distinguishing between genuine, evidence-based threats and manufactured narratives that amplify fear to distract from more pressing issues. At a moment when public discourse is saturated with predictions of imminent collapse, it is more critical than ever to prioritize risks that are backed by empirical data — such as the accelerating climate crisis and the growing erosion of democratic institutions around the world.

    On the question of whether unregulated tech innovation can solve climate change and deliver global peace, there is good reason to approach the claims of tech billionaires with deep skepticism. After all, Thiel himself has already hedged against the collapse he predicts, preparing both a fortified bunker in New Zealand and a personal refuge in Javier Milei’s Argentina, signaling that even the biggest promoters of apocalyptic elite narratives do not believe their own rhetoric about technology saving the world.

  • Schmidt signs off in style as the Wallabies beat Italy 57-10 to end a 6-test skid

    Schmidt signs off in style as the Wallabies beat Italy 57-10 to end a 6-test skid

    PERTH, Australia – In a fitting send-off for departing head coach Joe Schmidt, Australia’s national rugby union team the Wallabies snapped a six-match losing skid on Saturday, recording a dominant 57-10 victory over Italy in the first concluding round of the inaugural Nations Championship.

    From the opening kickoff at Perth’s venue, the Wallabies seized control of the match that had evaded them in their previous two tournament outings. Lock Josh Canham, who would finish the day with a hat-trick of tries, crossed the try line just four minutes into the game. Fullback Tom Wright and hooker Brandon Paenga-Amosa added two more tries within the next eight minutes, putting the home side up 19-0 before the 15-minute mark. Prop Angus Bell and center Len Ikitau extended the lead further with tries in the closing 15 minutes of the first half, bringing Australia’s first-half try total to six. Italy’s only bright spot of the opening 40 minutes came from captain Michele Lamaro, who scored the Azzurri’s lone first-half try in the 20th minute, sending the two sides into halftime with Australia holding an unassailable 38-5 lead.

    Canham completed his hat-trick seven minutes into the second half, picking up the ball at the base of a ruck just meters from Italy’s try line and burrowing over to push the lead to 45-10. Montanna Ioane scored Italy’s second try shortly after halftime, but that would mark the final points the visitors would put on the board. A late Italian try in the 75th minute was disallowed after video review confirmed a knock-on in the in-goal area.

    The match ended on a high note for the Wallabies, with replacement hooker Billy Pollard and substitute back Ben Donaldson adding late tries. Donaldson’s 80th-minute try, capped off by a rampaging break from backrower Rob Valetini, put the finishing touches on the 47-point blowout.

    The win carries extra weight for the Wallabies after their late-game collapses in the opening two rounds of the Nations Championship. The side held comfortable leads against both Six Nations champion France in Brisbane and Ireland in Sydney, only to surrender those advantages and drop both matches by narrow margins. This time around, Australia held onto its momentum from the opening whistle, closing out Schmidt’s tenure with the positive result the squad had targeted.

    “When you’ve let slip leads like that a few times, you’ve got to learn from those experiences, and I felt we did that tonight,” Schmidt told reporters after the match. “We got far enough in front that it wasn’t really going to matter if we weren’t as good in the second half, but there was still some really good stuff out there from the guys.”

    For Italy, the first phase of the Nations Championship ended without a single win, and the campaign was marred by off-field disciplinary issues. Head coach Gonzalo Quesada was suspended for the match after receiving an initial two-game ban for criticizing match officials following Italy’s 47-17 loss to New Zealand last week; his suspension was reduced to one game on appeal, leaving him unable to join his team on the sidelines Saturday. The Azzurri already dropped their tournament opener to Japan, and disciplinary trouble extended to the playing side Saturday: already-replaced prop Marco Riccioni received a red card after a melee between players spilled from the touchline into Italy’s technical area, knocking several support staff off their chairs.

    Lock Niccolò Cannone also received a four-match suspension after his yellow card for a head-butt against New Zealand was upgraded to a red card post-match. Captain Lamaro acknowledged the team’s underwhelming performance across the opening tournament phase.

    “Gutted. Obviously very disappointed with the result and the performance we put in,” Lamaro said of Saturday’s outcome and the tour as a whole. “We played a very good first half against the All Blacks last week, but apart from that we’ve been pretty poor.”

    Schmidt first announced his departure from the head coaching role last year, agreeing to stay on through the opening Nations Championship round to allow his successor, Les Kiss, time to complete his existing commitments with Super Rugby side the Queensland Reds. Looking back on his two-and-a-half year tenure, Schmidt said he leaves the program in a better position than he found it, with the squad building toward the 2027 Rugby World Cup, which will be hosted on Australian home soil. Despite a low overall winning percentage during his tenure, Schmidt noted clear progress in team culture and core on-field performance.

    “I think the players are more connected. I think the leaders are more vocal,” Schmidt said. “Our fundamentals, our set piece is getting better. To the rugby public, thank you for sticking with us. We’ve just had massive support, and it makes a difference to the players.”